Man with a mission – Karel Van Hulle

Karel Van Hulle is a lawyer by training. After graduating from KU Leuven University he moved into banking supervision with the Belgium Banking Commission as it was then called. Mr. Van Hulle soon took responsibility for accounting issues and participated in the reform of the Belgian accounting and auditing regulation. He subsequently became the first secretary of the Belgian Accounting Standards Board. Eight years later he joined the European Commission. “Why? I had always been a very committed European. Even when I was still a student I was very active in the European federalist movement and so it was no surprise to anyone when I took a role with the Commission.”hideAt the Commission he held the posts of Head of Unit for Accounting Standards, Head of Unit for Financial Reporting and Company Law and Head of Unit for Accounting and Auditing. He worked in this area for 20 years from 1984 until 2004. In 2004 he was asked to become Head of the Insurance and Pensions Unit in DG “Internal Market and Services”. “Because I was a policyholder it was assumed I knew everything about insurance, but, of course, I knew nothing about insurance at all. I did not even take the course of insurance law,” quipped Mr. Van Hulle. “I soon realised that insurance is actually very important but that the insurance industry suffers from a distinct lack of awareness compared to the banking sector. I would say that at a cocktail party the bankers will occupy the centre of the room making the noise while the insurers will be in the corners talking to each other,” he said. He said that he has spent the last five years working hard to help redress this profile imbalance to try and “upgrade the sector to the position it deserves as a central element of the economy.” Mr Van Hulle has a clear vision of the role and objectives of the European Commission that is perhaps not often understood by many Europeans, let alone non-Europeans. He explained that the Commission is the initiator of legislation and has the key role to identify what needs to be done at the European Union level. Then, it must make sure that the Member States and key stakeholders are aware of the issue in question and the need for possible change through proposals issued by the Commission for consultation. The Better Regulation agenda is an important part of this process, explained Mr. Van Hulle. “Under this agenda nothing is done without first carrying out impact assessments on the sector to determine the likely effect of any action. So when the Solvency II Directive was proposed in 2007 we carried out an impact assessment to explain why it was being done and what the likely impact would be,” he said. And the Commission does not do all this work itself but tries to ensure that it is carried out together with the very stakeholders that will be affected in the end. After this process is complete the Commission then writes a proposal which is presented to the European Parliament and to the Council of Ministers. At the Council of Ministers the text will be discussed by experts from the Member State governments, and at the European Parliament, the text will be examined by the relevant committee. In the case of Solvency II it is the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of which Peter Skinner, Member of European Parliament for the South East of England region, and the man responsible for guiding Solvency II through the Parliament as Rapporteur, is a member. “At this stage you are really totally surrounded by the project and it becomes a very major part of your life and all your time,” he said. For Solvency II a very important role is also played by the Frankfurt-based Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS). This committee comprises representatives of national insurance supervisors and is responsible for liaison with stakeholders and preparing the technical groundwork needed to develop the Directive. Mr. Van Hulle stressed that Solvency II is the most important regulatory project to hit the European insurance industry for the last thirty years and so should not be sniffed at. “It is very important and complex and attracts a lot of interest from stakeholders,” he said.

Man with a mission – Karel Van Hulle

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