Orgalime Comments on the Commission proposal for a new Regulation on the Common European Sales Law (2011/0284)
Orgalime represents a fundamentally healthy industry that is a major export sector. We are very much committed to simplifying international trade for engineering companies, including SMEs, by for example issuing model contracts and general conditions that are widely used in cross-border business, both within as well as outside the EU. For many years, Orgalime has been following the discussion on the harmonised European contract framework (European Contract Law dossier, subsequently the Common European Sales Law (CESL)), and has contributed with its expertise and viewpoint of businesses actually involved in the field throughout the discussion.
We are confident to say that businesses within the engineering industry do not experience serious problems in cross-border trading.
Thanks to the freedom of contract principle and to the possibility of using self-developed contracts or other standard contracts and general conditions, European engineering companies - of which the vast majority are SMEs - are coping well with the different national legal systems.
As we explain in our position paper here below, we do not see the need for a single set of rules creating a regime identical throughout the European Union and applicable to B-2-B relations, even if such an instrument were to have an optional character.