The European Commission has called a group of legal experts to study how to improve contract Law in the European Union. The group is formed of 18 experts in European contract law, lawyers and consumer representatives and It will aim to promote cross border trade and strengthen the rights of consumers.

The Commission will launch a public consultation on the most appropriate way forward to improve coherence in contract law in the summer. A possible solution could be an optional European contract law, which would guarantee a high level of consumer protection.

The  Draft Common Frame of Reference includes the work of a group of lawyers in the field of private law in plain language. The new group will prepare an accessible text that will follow the life cycle of a contract, from pre-contractual duties and the formation of a contract to remedies for the breach of a contract and the consequences of termination.

Jonathan Faull, Director General for the Justice, Freedom and Security Directorate-General, chaired the first meeting, which focused on concrete questions concerning the definition of the contract, its interpretation and formation. The European Parliament and the Council have observer status at the group’s meetings.

The Commission will also issue a policy paper and launch a public consultation in the summer on the best way forward on contract law in Europe. The consultation will run until the end of January 2011 and will cover commercial cross-border problems faced by consumers and businesses and how best to solve them.

The Commission is working to tackle bottlenecks to the Single Market under its Europe 2020 strategy, in particular by offering harmonised solutions for consumer contracts, EU model contract clauses and by making progress on the coherence of European contract law. Europe 2020 strategy is the successor to the Lisbon strategy, and it aims to go out of the crisis and prepare EU economy for the next decade.