The EU's controversial Environmental Liability Directive will this week return to the European Parliament for agreement.
The European Parliament had originally proposed that financial guarantees, including insurance, should be compulsory under the Directive to ensure that polluters had the means to pay for damage caused. But in June the Council of Ministers voted to postpone the introduction of compulsory guarantees for five years.
Royal & SunAlliance technical insurances manager Phil Bell said he expected the European Parliament to agree to voluntary financial assurances.
Bell, who is also chairman of the Comité Européen des Assurances environmental liability committee, said that keeping insurance voluntary would enable insurers to develop sensible and profitable environmental products in their own time.
