Tuesday 3 May 2011

Expert advice on the future of European contract law

Just a quick note to announce the publication of the results of the Expert Group on European Contract Law. Commissioner Reding stated the following:

"After more than 10 years of intense work on contract law by the European Union, I am grateful to the members of the expert group for having consolidated, simplified, modernised and narrowed down the preparatory work done so far into a feasibility study. It is also good to see that contract law experts from very different legal traditions and professional backgrounds arrived at a consensus on the document. The result of the expert group is without doubt a major step in the work towards a future European contract law instrument, which the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee favoured in a vote last month. This study provides the EU institutions with a toolbox for any future EU initiative in the field of contract law. I plan to discuss this further with the European Parliament, the incoming Polish Presidency and stakeholders to see whether and how this toolbox can serve as the basis of a political follow-up initiative on contract law this autumn. My goal is that SMEs and consumers should benefit from a user-friendly contract law instrument, especially when it comes to cross-border transactions in the Single Market."
More information can be found in today's press release and on the Commission's website. Interested parties are invited to send their feedback to the Commission by 1 July 2011.