For the purposes of this Directive:

1. (a)

   insurance undertaking shall mean an undertaking which has received official authorization in accordance with Article 6 of Directive 73/239/EEC;

2. (b)

   branch shall mean an agency or branch of an insurance undertaking, having regard to Article 3 of Directive 88/357/EEC;

3. (c)

   home Member State shall mean the Member State in which the head office of the insurance undertaking covering a risk is situated;

4. (d)

   Member State of the branch shall mean the Member State in which the branch covering a risk is situated;

5. (e)

   Member State of the provision of services shall mean the Member State in which a risk is situated, as defined in Article 2 (d) of Directive 88/357/EEC, if it is covered by an insurance undertaking or a branch situated in another Member State;

6. (f)

   control shall mean the relationship between a parent undertaking and a subsidiary, as defined in Article 1 of Directive 83/349/EEC9, or a similar relationship between any natural or legal person and an undertaking;

7. (g)

   qualifying holding shall mean a direct or indirect holding in an undertaking which represents 10 % or more of the capital or of the voting rights or which makes it possible to exercise a significant influence over the management of the undertaking in which a holding subsists.

   F1For the purposes of this definition, in the context of Articles 8 and 15 and of the other levels of holding referred to in Article 15, the voting rights referred to in Articles 9 and 10 of Directive 2004/109/EC10, as well as the conditions regarding aggregation thereof laid down in Article 12(4) and (5) of that Directive, shall be taken into account.

   Member States shall not take into account voting rights or shares which investment firms or credit institutions may hold as a result of providing the underwriting of financial instruments and/or placing of financial instruments on a firm commitment basis included under point 6 of Section A of Annex I to Directive 2004/39/EC11, provided that those rights are, on the one hand, not exercised or otherwise used to intervene in the management of the issuer and, on the other, disposed of within one year of acquisition;

8. (h)

   parent undertaking shall mean a parent undertaking as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of Directive 83/349/EEC;

9. (i)

   subsidiary shall mean a subsidiary undertaking as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of Directive 83/349/EEC; any subsidiary of a subsidiary undertaking shall also be regarded as a subsidiary of the undertaking which is those undertakings' ultimate parent undertaking;

10. (j)

    regulated market shall mean a financial market regarded by an undertaking's home Member State as a regulated market pending the adoption of a definition in a Directive on investment services and characterized by:

    • regular operation, and

    • the fact that regulations issued or approved by the appropriate authorities define the conditions for the operation of the market, the conditions for access to the market and, where the Council Directive of 5 March 1979 coordinating the conditions for the admission of securities to official stock-exchange listing (79/279/EEC)12 applies, the conditions for admission to listing imposed in that Directive or, where that Directive does not apply, the conditions to be satisfied by a financial instrument in order to be effectively dealt in on the market.

    For the purposes of this Directive, a regulated market may be situated in a Member State or in a third country. In the latter event, the market must be recognized by the home Member State and meet comparable requirements. Any financial instruments dealt in on that market must be of a quality comparable to that of the instruments dealt in on the regulated market or markets of the Member State in question;

11. (k)

    competent authorities shall mean the national authorities which are empowered by law or regulation to supervise insurance undertakingsF2;

12. (l)

    F3close links shall mean a situation in which two or more natural or legal persons are linked by:

    1. (a)

       ‘participation’, which shall mean the ownership, direct or by way of control, of 20 % or more of the voting rights or capital of an undertaking or

    2. (b)

       ‘control’, which shall mean the relationship between a parent undertaking and a subsidiary, in all the cases referred to in Article 1 (1) and (2) of Directive 83/349/EEC13, or a similar relationship between any natural or legal person and an undertaking; any subsidiary undertaking of a subsidiary undertaking shall also be considered a subsidiary of the parent undertaking which is at the head of those undertakings.

    A situation in which two or more natural or legal persons are permanently linked to one and the same person by a control relationship shall also be regarded as constituting a close link between such persons.

Notwithstanding Article 2 (2), Member States shall take every step to ensure that monopolies in respect of the taking up of the business of certain classes of insurance, granted to bodies established within their territories and referred to in Article 4 of Directive 73/239/EEC, are abolished by 1 July 1994.