Activities of Heide RÜHLE related to 2011/2013(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION Green Paper from the Commission on policy options for progress towards a European contract law for consumers and businesses
Amendments (12)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas contract law is at the heart of all national rules governing the behaviour of businesses and consumers in their markets; whereas the internal market remains fragmented, owing to the existence of 27 different legal systems and the risks and costs inherent in cross- border transacgreater study is needed to further understand why the internal market remains fragmented and how best to address these problems including how to ensure implementation of existing legislations,
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas a common European Contract Law would benefittoolbox, to create more coherent and consistent legislation and standard terms and conditions, would benefit businesses and consumers in particular, since they would be able to greater exploit the advantages of the internal market to the fullSingle Market,
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas in its Green Paper1 the Commission sets out a range of options for a European contract law instrument, which could help the EU to recover from the economic crisis, develop entrepreneurship and strengthen public confidence in the internal market,
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the negotiations on the consumer protection directive2 illustrated just how difficult it is to harmonise contract lawsumer law as applied to contracts without undermining the common commitment to a high level of consumer protection in Europe and what limits this imposes on the process,
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Urges the Commission to undertake a thorough impact assessment of the option deemed most appropriate; this impact assessment should include, inter alia, identification of the most suitable legal basis, social and economic impacts, coherence with existing EU, international and private law, possible systems of arbitration in cases of conflict regarding the choice and application of the optional instrument between consumers and businesses, and the level of added value for consumers and businesses of such an optional instrument; that this impact assessment should be completed and concerns addressed before work commences on the policy option
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Stresses that a thorough impact assessment, which investigates all the policy options in the Green paper equally, including the possibility of taking no action, must be scrutinised in depth by the European Parliament and all associated committees before a recommendation is finally chosen and before work on the policy option begins;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Takes the view that the development of an optional European Contract Lawinterinstitutional development of a “toolbox” could do much to improve the functioning of the internal market through facilitating greater consistency in new legislation and that Parliament and the Council should have final responsibility for determining its legal form and scope; Additional initiatives to assist SMEs in entering into cross- border trade could include the development of some standard terms and conditions to be used under the governing laws of existing systems.
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Takes the view that a European Contract Law could constitutes an additional, separate system governing cross-border contracts, although the Member States should be given the option of applying it to contracts concluded under their domestic law as well;nd e-commerce
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Takes the view that it needs to be further considered if Articles 114 and 169 or 352 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union would constitute the appropriate legal basis for an instrument regulating business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) contracts;
Amendment 59 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Emphasises the particular importance of facilitating e-commerce in the EU, given that this sector is underdeveloped, as a result ofnd it is necessary to assess whether differences between national contract law systems, and could represent an obstacle to the development of that sector which has rightly been identified by businesses and consumers as a potential motor for future growth;
Amendment 71 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Takes the view that the regulatory focus of a European Contract Law should be the principles underpinning contracts: in the case of consumer contracts, the focus should be on the law governing sales and, where appropriate, service and works contracts and the general provisions should contain rules on the definition of a contract, pre-contractual obligations, the procedures for concluding contracts, representaat such an instrument should not prevent consumers from the protection, grounds of nullity, the interpretation of contracts, the performance of contracts, rights and obligations, in particular warranty rights, under a contract, the right of withdrawal, termination, statutory limitation, etc.;anted by the existing rules of private international law (Rome I and Rome II regulations).
Amendment 84 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Takes the view that any initiative on European Contract Law in the B2C sphere must establish a very high level of consumer protection and that, should Member States nevertheless guarantee a higher level of protection, the annex to the law should make this explicitly clear;consumers should not be deprived of access to this protection