Brussels, 13/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - In order to lift the obstacles that may still prevent consumers and businesses from taking full advantage of the internal market, the Commission has launched consultation on the potential problems that could result from divergence between the national contract laws. The fact that SMEs and consumers are not familiar with contract laws in Member States other than their own may discourage them from undertaking cross-border transactions. Different national rules may increase the cost of transactions, especially the cost of gaining information and of legal action for companies in general, and all the more for SMEs and consumers.
Through a communication on European contract law adopted at a joint initiative by Commissioners David Byrne (consumers), Frits Bolkestein (internal market) and Erkki Liikanen (enterprise and information society), the Commission seeks to know whether sector-specific harmonisation of specific or technical marketing contracts - an approach that has so far been adopted at Community level - may resolve these problems or if another approach would be more effective.
In order to see things more clearly, the Commission proposes four options to be discussed: a) allow the market to settle any problem encountered; b) identify the elements common to most of the national laws and make guidelines for national legislators; c) modify any Community legislation in this connection in order to simplify and improve it; d) create a new Community legal instrument - a voluntary model or a safety net of conservative provisions in cases where a possible problem has not been foreseen in the contract.
Consultation on this document is open until 15 October 2001. The full text may be consulted at the address: http: //europe.eu.int/comm/off/green/index_fr.htm. Contributions may be sent to European-Contract@cec.eu.int.