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The parliamentary finance and monetary policy committee voted in favour of the government-sponsored changes to the insurance act. Apart from including the provisions of two EU insurance directives, passed after the insurance act was last amended in 2004, the changes also demand that insurers abolish their equalisation risk reserves by 1st January 2007, said Mr Ziga Lavric, the state secretary of the Finance Ministry. Mr Lavric added that the changes allow insurers only to create such reserves for credit-based insurance, while the rest would have to be abolished. The changes moreover allow the insurance companies to act as mediators in deals involving investment coupons of mutual funds, Lavric revealed. The insurers will moreover be allowed to perform a special and limited form of re-insurance, therefore strengthening their competitive position, he said. EU Repeats Warning The European Commission has issued a second requested to Slovenia to complete its implementation of a directive on activities and supervision of institutions for occupational pension insurance. The deadline for the implementation of the directive ran out on 23rd September 2006, while Slovenia and ten other EU members received the first request already in December, the Commission said. If Slovenia once again does not act, the Commission will refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg. As the Commission explained, the directive is an important element in upgrading the EU's internal market with respect to supplementary pension insurance. Although the systems for such occupational insurance differ in EU countries, the directive brings harmonised regulations for the supervision of institution which handle pension insurance, and sets down rules for cross-border assurance of occupational pensions. According to the Commission, this latter issue is one of the matters Slovenia should transpose to its legislation. Slovenians should be able to have access to pension insurance in other EU members as well. In Slovenia, supplementary pension funds are managed by mutual pension funds, companies and insurers, the biggest of which is the state-run Pension Fund Management (KAD).