The EU: Pushing Common Contracts in the Common Market

One of the reasons it’s great to do business in America may soon be coming to the European Union.

The Financial Times reports that the EU’s central government in Brussels is working on a common contracts system [paywall] to make it simpler to conduct business between countries in EU member states.  Presently, doing business between countries in Europe is, well… doing business in another country.  Most EU members are already using common currencies, common exchange rates, and other tools to make it simpler to coordinate business in Europe.  But businesses doing business in Europe need to write their contracts separately for use in each country, implemented differently for each country.  What’s being proposed now is a new standard of contract that will work in all EU member countries.

The idea is that parties entering into agreements could then opt to use this as the basis for their dealings if they felt that it would be more suitable. The “28th system” could be suitable for cross-border transactions – for example, if a Polish supplier was dealing with an Italian contractor but was unfamiliar with Italian law, or if a French consumer was shopping on the internet and wanted to be sure of the rules governing his purchase.

It’s almost like an API for contracts.  Write your contract by this standard and be sure it’ll be interpreted the right way in every EU country.

Admittedly, this is one of those “preliminary pre-discussionary meetings” for a project that may never see the light of day, but we sure hope it does.