European news on the Fondation’s website

A "Europe" category is now available on the Fondation’s website

http://www.fondation-droitcontinental.org/jcms/c_9801/europe

Class Actions

The European Commission launched a public consultation on the future of class actions in Europe, open until April 30, 2011. In its introduction, the Commission makes clear that a European approach should avoid the abuses have sometimes resulted from the U.S. system of class actions, particularly concerning punitive damages, the lack of restriction on the parties that can sue, the possibility of contingency fees for lawyers and the scope of authorized methods of obtaining evidence. It considers that all these features would increase the risk of abusive litigation to an extent that is not compatible with the European legal tradition.
 

The text of the consultation:http://ec.europa.eu/justice/news/consulting_public/0054/ConsultationpaperCollectiveredress4February2011.pdf

Alternative Dispute Resolution Methods for Consumers

Finding that alternative dispute resolution methods between businesses and consumers are rarely used within the Union, the European Commission will publish in the coming months a proposal for a directive to develop and enhance out-of-court resolution of consumer disputes. To prepare this text, it has launched a public consultation open until March 15, 2011.

Access to the public consultation:http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/dgs_consultations/ca/docs/adr_consultation_paper_18012011_en.pdf

 

Justice Council

During their informal meeting on January 21, 2011, the Ministers of Justice of the European Union addressed the problem of barriers to EU citizens exercising their rights, as well as the training of judges on European issues.

Access to the minutes of the meeting:http://www.eu2011.hu/fr/news/l%E2%80%99union-proche-des-ses-citoyens-ne-doit-pas-etre-une-abstraction

 

Procurement Contracts

The European Commission published a Green Paper on the modernization of EU policy on public procurement, on which a public consultation is open until April 18, 2011. According to Commissioner Michel Barnier, "We must clarify the rules for public procurement to facilitate the task of governments as well as businesses that wish to participate in tenders in Europe. This consultation will focus on small business' access to these tenders, on reducing bureaucracy and promoting cross-border procurement in Europe. My other ambition is to ensure that public procurement can contribute to job creation, innovation and environmental protection."

The Green Paper: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/docs/2011/public_procurement/20110127_COM_fr.pdf

Competition Policy

During its plenary meeting on January 20, 2011, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the report of the European Commission on competition policy in the EU in 2009. It should be noted in particular that in paragraph 15 of the resolution it: "(...) reiterated that the Commission must present without unnecessary delay a legislative initiative aimed at facilitating the exercise of individual and collective actions designed to obtain effective compensation for damages due to breaches of EU competition law and should ensure that this initiative falls within a horizontal approach, avoids the excesses of the North American system and is adopted by the ordinary legislative procedure (co-decision);"

The European Parliament resolution: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2011-0023+0+DOC+XML+V0//FR&language=FR

Evaluation of the Implementation of the Services Directive

One year after implementation of the Services Directive by the Member States, an assessment of how it was implemented on the ground has been made. The method used is particularly interesting: it involves an exercise in "mutual evaluation" consisting of a systematic and comprehensive review of their legislation by the Member States, which helped to list all the legal requirements imposed on service providers in terms of establishment (licensing arrangements, territorial restrictions, restrictions on the ownership of capital) and the requirements for cross-border provision of services (registration requirements, reporting and insurance), compared to the criteria in the directive, in order to determine whether they should be retained, modified or deleted. About 35,000 requirements have been identified...

In summarizing this evaluation, the European Commission published a Communication entitled "Towards a Better Functioning of the Single Market for Services - To take full advantage of the results of the mutual evaluation process under the Service Directive"

Access to the document: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0020:FIN:FR:PDF

Intellectual Property

The European Commission published a report on compliance with intellectual property rights. A public consultation on this document is open until March 31, 2011.

The report: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0779:FIN:FR:DOC

The analysis of the implementation of the current Directive 2004/48/EC: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=SEC:2010:1589:FIN:EN:PDF

Public Consultation: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2011/intellectual_property_rights_en.htm

 

Financial Supervision

The three new European financial supervision authorities commenced their operations on January 1, 2011. They are the European Banking Authority, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and the European Securities Authority. Their main mission is to ensure consistency of national regulations and contribute to improving European regulation.

 Details on the website of the Hungarian presidency of the EU: http://www.eu2011.hu/fr/news/les-nouvelles-%C2%AB-sentinelles-%C2%BB-financieres-en-service