Brussels, 08/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament calls for more rapid progress to be made toward the creation of a coherent European contract law than proposed by the Commission in a communication published in February. Adopting the report proposed by German Klaus-Heiner Lehne (EPP), the European Parliament welcomes the fact that the Commission is proposing to create a common terminology in a common reference framework, but deplores the fact that it has only fixed the deadline for 2008-2009, without a detailed timetable for work. The EP calls for this reference framework to be drafted by end 2006. One reads in the introduction to the resolution that only concrete stages in the context of a detailed timetable with the consequent use of a common terminology can lead to a coherent European contracts law. It is stressed that the large number of legal orders in Member States is detrimental to the correct functioning of the internal market.
The European Parliament would have liked the Commission to propose in its action plan the creation by end 2004 of a database on national legislation and jurisprudence in the field of contract law, which, say MEPs, is indispensable for beginning work on a common reference framework. The European Parliament considers that the Commission has not sufficiently consulted the civil society and law practitioners.
Interested in the later stages, the EP resolution proposes that the common reference framework be transposed into a body of model contractual clauses, so that it may be used by all - practitioners, firms and consumers. MEPs would also like the Commission to develop rules concerning the consumer contracts and insurance contracts as a priority once the reference framework has been adopted, in order to facilitate crossborder trade. Such instruments would be optional to begin with, and contracting parties are free to use them or not. This solution could then become imperative.
The EP and the Commission plan to organise a conference on this theme early 2004.