Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-06-Speech-4-008"
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"Madam Commissioner, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin by thanking Commissioner Kuneva for our productive exchanges.
Thirdly, the horizontal instrument will clarify what is meant by ‘unfair terms’ in contracts between professionals and consumers. There will be a black list of banned terms, a grey list of terms presumed to be unfair and other terms which consumers could demonstrate to be unfair by means of legal action.
Fourthly, the duration of the two-year statutory guarantee will be extended to include the period when the goods are out of use for repair.
Fifthly, the right to remedies will be reaffirmed and its arrangements clarified; above all, the horizontal instrument will be able to adapt to change. Specific legal questions will continue to be dealt with in the so-called sectoral Directives and will for the most part be subject to minimum harmonisation, with, in our view, a mutual recognition clause, whose mechanism will have to be defined and which should facilitate the resolution of any legal conflicts.
Finally, my report stresses that without information, and without being able to invoke these remedies, consumers have nothing but virtual rights. Effective application of their rights requires national and European information campaigns, greater visibility and a more active role for the European Consumer Centres, and the facilitation of judicial and extrajudicial remedies.
In conclusion, Parliament recalls the discussion on collective redress. As rapporteur, I believe that collective redress, as a specific means of resolving mass disputes, is an important method that warrants further consideration. I call on the Commission to submit precise studies and legal proposals in the next few months. However, I must state clearly that the European form of collective redress will be different from American class actions, whose very proactive philosophy involving the aggressive canvassing of consumers by unscrupulous lawyers, and methods that provide, in particular, for the award of punitive damages borne by the operators, are completely alien to the judicial culture of European countries.
On the contrary, I believe that a European procedure will have to allow associations to act on behalf of all those who have suffered similar losses caused by the same dishonest professional to obtain, through a single process and without any express action on their part, the compensation they are owed.
To conclude, I would like to say that this Green Paper defends ambitious goals and I personally hope that Parliament’s vote clearly indicates the way forward for the Europe of consumers.
Why do we have this Green Paper and EP report? Three factors justify this exercise aimed at making the European consumer acquis, i.e. eight Directives adopted between 1985 and 1999, more consistent and more modern.
First of all, the rapid development of new marketing techniques, primarily e-commerce, has rendered some of the European laws obsolete.
Secondly, there are many inconsistencies in the current acquis, which contains different legal definitions of identical concepts.
Thirdly, the decision made in the past to opt for minimum harmonisation, thereby allowing the Member States to retain specific national provisions, has resulted in fragmentation of the legal environment, given that the rules in force lay down a minimum European standard but do not define a single method for meeting it. The consequence of this, according to the September 2006 Eurobarometer, is that 50% of citizens are more wary of cross-border purchases while 71% believe that it is more difficult to assert their rights when buying from sellers based in another Member State.
Similarly, it is important for economic operators in that they will benefit from a secure regulatory environment and will be able to make the most of an internal market comprising nearly 500 million consumers. One of the challenges of this review is enter a qualitative stage, to some extent laying the foundations for a European consumer code. However, what method should be used? The European Parliament fully supports the methodology proposed by the Commission, namely a mixed or combined approach: on the one hand, it is based on the definition of a horizontal instrument to ensure maximum harmonisation, applying identical legal concepts across the current Directives; on the other hand, it provides for the revision, where necessary, of some of the sectoral Directives, where minimum harmonisation will continue to apply.
The horizontal instrument must be formulated with a view to bringing together the basic rights of European consumers. First of all, it will contain a single definition of ‘consumer’, which in Parliament’s view should apply to any natural or legal person acting for purposes which are outside their trade, business or profession, while a ‘professional’ should be defined as any person acting for purposes relating to their trade, business or profession. You may ask why such a restrictive definition of ‘consumer’ is necessary? In fact, it is in the interest of consumers themselves. There is a high risk that extending the specific protection offered by consumer law to a broader range of beneficiaries would result in a lower level of protection, which we want to avoid.
Secondly, the horizontal instrument will guarantee consumers’ right of withdrawal in the case of purchases made on the Internet or in a doorstep situation. The arrangements for calculating the period of withdrawal will be harmonised: at the moment the withdrawal period is, for example, a minimum of seven days for distance contracts, but in certain countries, such as Germany and Finland, a 14-day period has been introduced. The methods of exercising the right of withdrawal will also be harmonised."@en1
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