The AA Motoring Trust is lobbying the European Union to rethink legislation that could cost young women drivers several hundred pounds more in car insurance premiums.

Members of the EU’s Employment and Social Affairs Council are expected to reach an agreement on the full scope of the directive next week.

The AA is concerned its supporters may not be fully aware of risk-based pricing and the implications of scrapping it due to the different way car insurance is priced on the continent, where it is the car, rather than the driver, that forms the basis of the premium.

The proposals originate from Anna Diamantopoulou, the EU's commissioner for employment and social affairs, and aims to enforce equal treatment of men and women in the supply of goods and services.

Bert Morris, deputy director of the AA Trust, says: "We support banning discrimination where appropriate but in the case of car insurance, there are sound, statistical reasons for differential pricing."

"If the law is pushed through with no exemption for motor insurers, then they would not be able to pass on lower premiums that safer women drivers currently enjoy. It would mean that women drivers, who are statistically safer, subsidizing the premiums of male drivers who make larger claims.”

AA research has consistently shown that young male drivers represent the highest risk on UK roads and that they are six times more likely to be killed behind the wheel than their parents. Overall, men tend to drive faster and more aggressively than women and have more catastrophic accidents as a result.

(Source: datamonitor.com)