We cannot consistently manage a common regulatory framework if we accept for too long a playing field which is not level, arbitrages among national supervisors, discriminations in the protection of policyholders along national borders. This was often the case under Solvency I, with so many national differences permitted by the EU directives. Solvency II allows a much more limited number of national specificities.
The kind of economic activity that is generated when a pukka all-weather road is built into a village – the explosion of horticulture, poultry, and dairy farming, the opening of clothing and assorted goods shops, the increasing use of powered vehicles – is extraordinary, as is the kind of activity that emerges around national highways.