No L 185/72 Official Journal of the European Communities 4. 7. 87 (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COUNCIL COUNCIL DIRECTIVE of 22 June 1987 amending, as regards credit insurance and suretyship insurance, First Directive 73/239/EEC on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provi- sions relating to the taking-up and pursuit of the business of direct insurance other than life assurance (87/343/EEC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 57 (2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the European Par- liament (3), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (%), Whereas First Council Directive 73/239/EEC of 24 july 1973 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the taking-up and pursuit of the business of direct insurance other than life assurance (¥), as amended by Directive 76/580/EEC (%), eliminated a number of divergencies in the laws of the Member States in order to facilitate the taking-up and pursuit of that business ; Whereas, however, Article 2 (2) (d) of the said Directive states that it does not apply, ‘pending further coordina- tion, which shall be implemented within four years of notification of this Directive’, to ‘export credit insurance (") OJ No C 245, 29. 9. 1979, p. 7 and OJ No C 5, 7. 1. 1983, p. 2. (» OJ No C 291, 10. 11. 1980, p. 70. @) OJ No C 146, 16. 6. 1980, p. 6. (9 OJ No L 228, 16. 8. 1973, p. 3. () OJ No L 189, 13. 7. 1976, p. 13. operations for the account of or with the support of the State’ ; whereas, since the protection of insured persons normally provided by the Directive is provided by the State itself where export credit insurance operations are carried out for the account of or with the guarantee of the State, such operations should continue to be excluded from the scope of the said Directive pending further coor- dination ; Whereas Article 7 (2) (c) of the said Directive states that ‘pending further coordination, which must be imple- mented within four years of notification of this Directive, the Federal Republic of Germany may maintain the provision prohibiting the simultaneous undertaking in its territory of health insurance, credit and suretyship insu- rance or insurance in respect of recourse against third parties and legal defence, either with one another or with other classes’ ; whereas it follows from this that there are barriers to the establishment of agencies and branches; whereas the present Directive is intended to remedy this situation ; Whereas the interests of insured persons are sufficiently safeguarded, as regards suretyship insurance, by the said Directive ; whereas the prohibition in the Federal Re- public of Germany on the simultaneous undertaking of suretyship insurance and other classes should be lifted ; Whereas insurance undertakings whose credit insurance business amounts to more than a small proportion of their total business require an equalization reserve which does not form part of the solvency margin ; whereas that reserve should be calculated according to the methods laid down in this Directive, which are recognized as equi- valent ;