EMAG

The independent action group for current and ex Equitable Life policyholders, funded by contributions.

Equitable Members Action Group

Equitable Members Action Group Limited, a company limited by guarantee, number 5471535 registered in the UK

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Media Stories: 25/01/2008 - EU Petitions Committee revisits ELAS - Press Coverage

25 January 2008 - EU Petitions Committee revisits ELAS - Press Coverage

Simon Bain in The Herald, January 25 2008

“Rebuke for ignoring Equitable Life report. Members of the European Parliament attacked the UK Government yesterday for its failure to respond to the 373-page report on Equitable Life published by the parliament's committee of inquiry last June, which calls for a compensation scheme for policyholders.

"One would think the UK was not a member of the European Union," said the former chair of the committee, the Irish MEP Mairéad McGuiness, as she backed the view of the report's author Diana Wallis, the LibDem MEP, that the government had "failed in its duty of loyal cooperation".

Robert Atkins, a Conservative MEP, described as an "utter disgrace" the Prime Minister's failure even to acknowledge a letter sent to him on the subject on December 6 by the European Parliament's president Hans-Gert Pöttering.

Michael Cashman MEP, deputy chair of the parliament's petitions committee and a confidant of Gordon Brown, called on the UK to agree to implement the recommendations of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, which when finally published may urge a compensation scheme for investors.

Cashman, speaking as the committee reconvened yesterday to try to put pressure on the UK Government, said: "I support fully the fact that we should have an early meeting and seek this concrete proposal and agreement that the Parliamentary Ombudsman's recommendations will be implemented. That seems to be the fair and just resolution."

Paul Braithwaite, secretary of Equitable Members' Action Group, which raised the original petition in 2004, told the committee: "It is important to realise that the UK Government is in a legal dispute with the Parliamentary Ombudsman on a matter of great constitutional importance. In essence it has argued that the role of the PO is merely advisory to government ministers and that the findings cannot be binding'."

He added: "Equitable sufferers are understandably embittered at the stark contrast between their quest for justice, which remains unaddressed after seven years, and the protection of Northern Rock's investors having been set up within seven days."


European Parliament press release

Stinging attack on UK government for "discourtesy" over Equitable Life report

23-01-2008

MEPs on Wednesday made scathing remarks about the UK government's failure to respond to last summer's European Parliament report on the problems at the British life insurance company Equitable Life, which caused financial losses to over a million policyholders.

Speaking before Parliament's Petitions Committee, Diana Wallis (ALDE, UK), who drafted the EP's report, said it was "extraordinary" that "the British government has not even had the courtesy to acknowledge the existence of the report". By failing to respond to the report of Parliament's committee of inquiry, adopted in June 2007, the UK was in breach of the "duty of loyal cooperation" between the EU institutions and governments, she believed.

"One would think the UK was not a member of the European Union", commented the former chair of the EP committee of inquiry into Equitable Life, Mairéad McGuinness (EPP-ED, IE), as she backed Diana Wallis' view that the government had failed in its duty of loyal cooperation.

Robert Atkins (EPP-ED, UK) spoke of the "downright rudeness of the British government", describing as an "utter disgrace" its failure even to acknowledge a letter sent to it on the subject on 6 December by EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering.

As to the practical steps that might be taken, Michael Cashman (PES, UK) argued that the best course of action was to ask Mrs Wallis and Mrs McGuinness to seek an early meeting with the UK Treasury, one of a number of recommendations made at the meeting by representatives of EMAG, a body representing Equitable Life policyholders. Petitions Committee chair Marcin Libicki (UEN, PL) agreed, and also backed another proposal, that Internal Market Commissioner McCreevy be asked to support Parliament's cause, since the Commission had already taken seriously its own duty to respond to the EP inquiry.


Labour ignore Equitable Life victims seven months after EU said they should get compensation

Conservatives in Europe

January 24, 2008

Gordon Brown still has not replied to results of Equitable Life victims' EU petition

Seven months after the European Union judged that victims of the Equitable Life scandal should receive full compensation from the British Government, Sir Robert Atkins MEP, Conservative head of the Petitions Committee in the European Parliament has revealed that Gordon Brown has not replied to, or even acknowledged the report.

Sir Robert, who was instrumental in persuading the European Parliament to establish the Committee of Inquiry, said: "Labour are treating the Equitable Life victims like the Northern Rock depositors - with discourtesy to the Parliamentary institutions that are fighting for them and with churlishness to the people who have lost money because of the Labour Government's incompetence."

Established on behalf of the one million policyholders, the Equitable Life committee blamed regulators who were lamentably deficient in supervising, investigating and regulating the company's operation. Lord Neill, a former chairman of the Committee of Standards in Public Life, stated that the British Financial Ombudsman Service failed in its duty to give unbiased support to victims of the affair.

Meeting Paul Braithwaite (Secretary General of the Equitable Members Action Group) at the Petitions Committee Sir Robert added: "Why does the Prime Minister want to offer a gratuitous insult to the aggrieved policy-holders of Equitable Life who expected more from their Prime Minister and their Government?"

Sir Robert Atkins MEP