The House labour and human rights committees on Tuesday held a joint session to discuss apparent age-based discrimination leading to elderly people being overcharged for car insurance, among other problems.

House labour committee chairman and Akel MP Andreas Kafkalias began the discussion by comparing the situation in Cyprus to that of other European Union member states, pointing out that only in Luxembourg and the Netherlands is age considered an “aggravating factor” for those wishing to take out insurance.

Additionally, he said, in Austria and France, “it is not permissible” for an insurance company to refuse to insure a vehicle.

“The conclusion can be drawn that in Cyprus we are following a policy full of discrimination against the elderly, and it is the responsibility of the executive branch to provide solutions to these issues,” he added.

Fellow Akel MP and House human rights committee chairwoman Irene Charalambides then called for the state “to show the utmost respect to people who have built, created and managed to reach old age”.

She added that the two committees will now attempt to put together a legislative framework to deal with the matter, “because it has been proven in other European countries that age is not considered an aggravating factor”.

Both chairs then called on the authorities and individuals to “proceed with mass complaints about the issue” to the competition commission, to force commission chairwoman Eva Pantzari “into a position to investigate the high prices of premiums”.

Commission spokeswoman Georgia Kastanou said the commission “cannot regulate the insurance premium market”, but did note that complaints can be evaluated, “so that it becomes clear … whether there are excessively high prices”.

MP Alexandra Attalides, who belongs to the Volt party, was less than impressed by this answer, saying the commission “was created and is paid for by taxpayers precisely to protect consumers from the position of dominance held by insurance companies and banks”.

Third age observatory chairman Demos Antoniou threatened that if insurance companies insist on maintaining high prices for premiums for elderly drivers, they may go to the European Court of Human Rights.

Meanwhile, Cyprus pensioners’ association chairman Costas Skarparis said companies are “punishing drivers because of their age”, and added that some companies are sticking an extra €100 on motorists’ premiums once they reach “a few days” past their 70th birthday.

Insurers’ association representative Andreas Anastasiades said age is “one of many factors which are taken into account for risks”, and added that there is a “free market” with 22 registered insurance companies in Cyprus.

The issue of car insurance premiums paid by the elderly has been a topic of political discussion for over 14 years, with the House labour committee first having discussed the matter in February 2011.

Then-committee chairman Pambis Kyritsis of Akel said elderly people “feel this injustice at their expense very strongly, because they feel that apart from everything else, this is also a way of restricting their active participation in society.

“Everyone is forced to get insurance and we can’t have certain groups of people being exploited by the companies,” he added.

Nine months later, following parliamentary elections, the new committee chairman Andreas Fakontis, also of Akel, blasted insurance companies for what he described as “dire discrimination” shown toward the elderly.

“Insurance companies either refuse to insure people of this age, or once the person has reached 70 years old, they request over double the amounts to insure their cars,” he said.