European Commission convenes legal expert group to seek solutions on contract law (Pudsey Liberal Democrats)

Pudsey Liberal Democrats <info@libdems.org.uk>

European Commission convenes legal expert group to seek solutions on contract law

June 23, 2010 11:11 AM
Originally published by Diana Wallis MEP

Contract and gavel The European Commission, seeking to boost cross-border trade and to ensure strong rights for consumers, has convened a new expert group to propose ways to improve contract law in the European Union. The group of eighteen contract law experts, lawyers and consumer representatives met for the first time recently in Brussels.

The European Parliament and the Council have observer status at the group's meetings. The European Parliament's role as observer on the Working Group is to be shared between Diana Wallis MEP and Klaus-Heiner Lehne, Chairman of the Committee on Legal Affairs. Diana Wallis attended the first meeting last week. She said:

"This is very exciting and is something I have been speaking about for some time. The CFR should be a tool for better law-making comprising a set of non-binding guidelines to be used by the lawmakers at Community level on a voluntary basis as a common source of inspiration or reference. The Commission is working to tackle bottlenecks to the Single Market under its Europe 2020 strategy, in particular by offering harmonised solutions for consumer contracts, EU model contract clauses and by making progress on the coherence of European contract law.

"This could even lead, if the political willingness is there, to a binding optional instrument on contract law, which means that cross border parties would be able to elect to choose a European law without all the difficulties bound up in the 27 different national regimes. This would be truly revolutionary for its potential impact on the Internal Market!"

The Commission will launch a public consultation on the most appropriate way forward to improve coherence in contract law in the summer. A possible solution could be an optional European contract law (or "28th system"). For example, an Irish retailer dealing with a French supplier, who is unfamiliar with French law, could opt for European law for the contract. In addition, a Polish consumer shopping on the Internet could push a "blue button" on the website and choose the European contract law instrument, which would guarantee a high level of consumer protection.

Legal scholars, who were funded by the EU's overall research programme (FP6), have been working on this complex area of private law for many years. Their work resulted in a Draft Common Frame of Reference. The new group will prepare a user-friendly text in simple language. Their draft will follow the life cycle of a contract - from pre-contractual duties and the formation of a contract to remedies for the breach of a contract and the consequences of termination.

The Commission will also issue a policy paper and launch a public consultation in the summer on the best way forward on contract law in Europe. The consultation will run until the end of January 2011 and will cover cross-border problems faced by consumers and businesses and how best to solve them.