Brussels, 22 January 2016 – At today’s plenary meeting of the EU Commission’s Community of Practice for Better Self- and Co-regulation (CoP), SRIW presented proposals to eliminate regulatory barriers so that consumers and business across the EU can benefit more in future from the advantages of digital technologies. These proposals therefore support the EU Commission’s declared goal in creating a digital single market.
SRIW was asked by the EU Commission’s Directorate General Connect to draft a Standard Clause able to be used within strategy implementation to enhance the dovetailing of legal framework conditions and multi-stakeholder processes and, in this way, support flexible responses to the new social challenges arising through the digital transformation.
RIW’s Chief Executive Officer Harald Lemke noted: “An innovative digital single market inspiring trust and confidence can only develop if statutory regulations clearly define the scope for action which, through concrete and market-conform measures, can be taken by co-regulation granted a legal authority.”
Rather than the proposals presented today seeking to replace democratically legitimised state regulation, they are directed to concretely defining abstract statutory value decisions and tasks giving due consideration to the expertise of the relevant stakeholders. Ultimately, this approach would facilitate the regulatory pace and flexibility required for such highly innovative spheres as the digital markets. Co-regulation, though, can only function effectively within a regulated framework with minimum standards and incentives for participating in multi-stakeholder processes and measures through delegated legislation. Hence, it is essential to have a state process of accreditation that, in the final analysis, also generates positive legal effects for the businesses involved, since this is the only way to create the legal certainty equally benefiting businesses and consumers which is so urgently needed in dynamically developing digital markets.
More details on the proposals:
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/content/could-standard-clause-help-better-frame-srcr
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/community-practice-better-self-and-co-regulation-0
