REVIEW OF THE CONSUMER ACQUIS (6307/07)
Letter from the Chairman to Rt Hon Ian
McCartney MP, Minister for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs,
Department of Trade and Industry/Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Your Explanatory Memorandum on the above Green
Paper was considered by Sub-Committee G (Social and Consumer Affairs)
at its meeting of 22 March 2007.
You will be aware that Sub-Committee E (Law
and Institutions) of the EU Select Committee undertook a closely
related Inquiry ("European Contract Law—the way forward?",
12th Report of Session 2004-05, HL Paper 95). That Report emphasised
the urgency of improving the acquis but questioned the
wisdom of pursuing the harmonisation approach. It was concluded
that the "case for harmonisation of contract law across Eurpe
has yet to be made. It is something that would have to be considered
on its merits".
We note that the "Consumer Law Compendium",
written as part of the Review process, concluded that there is
no strong argument against a selective shift to full harmonisation
in those areas where the use of minimum clauses has clearly caused
barriers to trade without substanially increasing consumer protection.
It is our view that the evidence presented by
the Commission in the Green Paper does suggest that the acquis
must be improved as a matter of urgency. On the other hand,
it also seems that a blanket approach to full harmonisation would
not be in the interests of better regulation, nor indeed of consumers.
We would therefore urge the government to be robust in acting
on its stated policy objective of balancing the retention of its
own strong levels of consumer protection against the benefits
of a clear consumer framework across the Single Market.
The Commission itself cites respect of the principle
of subsidiarity as an important consideration in this debate and
we trust that the Government will procees with full regard to
that principle.
We have decided to retain the Green Paper under
scrutiny and will consider the issue again in the light of your
submission to the Commission on the Green Paper.
26 March 2007
| 
