Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-06-Speech-1-247-000"
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"en.20110606.25.1-247-000"2
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"Mr President, I would also like to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Diana Wallis, together with Hans-Peter Mayer and Sirpa Pietikäinen, for the excellent work on this dossier.
It is very clear that, in the wake of the global economic crisis, the Internal Market needs to be boosted. We need the Internal Market if we want to have growth, job creation and innovation. What is the current situation? Only one in four businesses trade across borders and those who trade limit their operations to only a few Member States. That means they miss out on the possibility of utilising the Internal Market.
What are the consequences for consumers? Well, they do not reap the benefits of the Internal Market either. Many cross-border orders – as many as 61% of the orders on the online market – fail to be completed for this reason. That means that we have here a non-functioning of the Internal Market both for businesses and for consumers. That is the reason why the Commission has launched a consultation on policy options in the field of contract law, in response to which Parliament is giving its opinion today.
We have seen that Internal Market failures are due, in part, to the differences in national contract law. We agree that there are other reasons for failure, but our recent Eurobarometer surveys show that contract-law related obstacles rank first out of eleven obstacles to business-to-consumer transactions. That is why we need to get rid of those obstacles, one by one, starting now with contract law.
By the way, this Parliament has been discussing this for ten years, but the experts outside have been discussing it for 30 years. So all the work done to analyse and make proposals is there on the table. We have never taken advantage of this. That is why I agree with the rapporteur that it is time to act now and to see what positive action we can take.
I have taken note of the assessment of the report on the policy options presented in the Green Paper and the support for the innovative solution of an optional instrument, which means no harmonisation but giving consumers and businesses a choice of having a Europe-wide system. I have also seen the support for an instrument applicable in both B2C and B2B transactions, which favours a material scope covering sales contracts, contracts for the supply of digital content and some service contracts. I have taken very good note of what has been said by Parliament, namely, that any future instrument, whatever it looks like, should give consumers a high level of protection in order not to deprive them of the protection they would otherwise enjoy under national law. That is a
. If we do not have that, we will fail in all of our activities.
Where do we stand at the moment? On 3 May 2011, the Commission published the results of a feasibility study by the Expert Group on European contract law and we invited all stakeholders to comment. The Commission is analysing the results of the public consultation and then it will prepare a detailed impact assessment to see what should be the next step that, in times of crisis, will be good for giving a boost to the Internal Market and creating growth and jobs in the Internal Market by expanding the markets, mostly for SMEs, and giving consumers the possibility of better choice and better deals."@en1
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