The EU Commission wants to create joint clinical assessments and harmonised assessment procedures at EU level for innovative health technology in order to remove barriers in the internal market. Thus, redundant duplication of work both in national HTA centres and for developers of health technology can be avoided and costs, currently incurred by developers due to differing national assessment concepts, can be reduced.

Due to reasons of cost, traders refrain from offering their goods across borders and consumers shy away from purchasing in other countries due to legal uncertainty. The Commission wants to change this by way of a Directive. It wants to remove barriers in cross-border trade with extensive full-harmonisation of guarantee law for sales of goods.

The EU Commission wants to increase efforts to combat the spread of antimicrobial resistance. With this aim, it has submitted a European Action Plan in line with the concept of “One Health”. In cep’s view, this is a sensible European initiative because resistant pathogens spread across borders thus making it necessary to take both EU-wide and global combating measures.

The EU Commission wants to make the transmission of personal data to non-EU countries easier in order to promote mutual trade and effectively combat international crime.

The Commission wants to improve cooperation between national consumer protection authorities in combating cross-border infringements of EU consumer protection laws. In cep's view, however, burdensome duties of cooperation should only apply to infringements which could noticeably damage the internal market.

In order to improve cross-border parcel delivery, the EU Commission proposes uniform information obligations for delivery services. In addition, obligations for universal service providers to report tariffs and terminal rates, an "assessment of affordability" of these tariffs by the regulatory authorities and network access obligations applicable to universal service providers vis à vis third parties are proposed.

In addition to online sales of goods, the EU Commission also wants to boost the market for digital content and ensure that it can also be offered and acquired across borders. With the proposed Directive, it wants to fully harmonise the guarantee rights and other consumer rights in contracts relating to the supply of digital content and thereby remove legal uncertainty and promote sales of digital content.

Online traders avoid offering their goods across borders for reasons of cost; consumers are discouraged from online purchases abroad due to uncertainty about their rights. The EU Commission wants to change this by way of the proposed Directive. With full harmonisation of the law on legal guarantees for online sales of goods, it wants to remove legal uncertainty in crossborder online trade and thereby encourage such trade.

The European Parliament has urged the EU Commission to “immediately” develop a new strategy to combat harmful alcohol consumption in the EU. In its resolution it already defines an array of concrete measures. The cep is assessing these measures in detail.

The European Commission has announced a reform of the copyright rules in the EU before the end of this year. It intends to reduce the differences between national copyright rules by way of harmonised exceptions. The cep assesses the benefits and problems of mandatory exceptions to copyright.

The Commission discusses whether and how geographical indications for non-agricultural products can be protected EU wide. A protected geographical indication consists of a product denomination which contains the geographical origin of a product. A protected geographical indication may be used by all producers provided their products originate from the specified geographical place of origin and the products possess the established product characteristics – e.g. quality features, production methods or "reputation" – attributable to that place of origin. The Commission discusses in particular whether protected geographical indications could be entered into a central register which would be administered e.g. by the Commission. 

The Commission wants to get an insight into national safety regulations for tourist accommodation. By way of this Green Paper, it wants to present its ideas and thoughts on how the confidence of providers and consumers can be increased, including, where necessary, by way of follow-up measures at EU level. In addition, the Commission wants to collect additional information on the safety of tourist accommodation by holding a public consultation.

The Commission indicates that it is generally satisfied with the application of the Regulation on advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP Regulation) but considers that it could be improved by extending the certification procedure to include universities and other non-commercial institutions. In addition, it calls for restriction of the hospital exemption, which allows ATMPs to be used without a marketing authorisation in domestic hospitals.

The Commission wants to stimulate cross-border e-commerce in the EU by improving parcel delivery conditions.

The Commission wants to harmonise consumer protection for travellers. For this purpose, bookings in travel agents and online will be placed on an equal footing.

The Commission recommends that the Member States introduce collective actions. Collective actions refers to actions brought by two or more affected parties or by an authority or entity on their behalf. Collective actions should facilitate the enforcement of legal rights, particularly where individual actions are too costly for affected parties.