European Union News - Internal Market

Representatives from the EU's Culture Ministries met in Cannes on 27 January to discuss the challenges facing the music industry at an informal meeting held to coincide with the start of this year's MIDEM international trade fair for the music and recording industry. At the event, European Commissioner Ján Figel' announced the launch of a study on the role of culture, and the EU's cultural industries, in promoting and stimulating creativity, innovation and growth in the EU.

On 29th Janurary 2008 the European Commission published, in the European Union Official Journal, a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 prior to reception.... Between 21st January 2008 and 23rd January

The European Commission has published a study by independent consultants on the EU markets for legal services associated with house and land sales (conveyancing services). The study finds that consumers have greater choice and are on average paying less for conveyancing services under deregulated systems, with no loss in quality. The market for conveyancing services is worth about €17 billion per annum; efficiency savings of even a few percent following deregulation would therefore save consumers millions of euros each year. The Commission is calling on Member States to look at the findings and to review and update national laws which limit competition and the free circulation of services throughout the Single Market instead of serving the interests of consumers.

The European Commission welcomes Apple's announcement to equalise prices for downloads of songs from its iTunes online store in Europe within the next six months. This puts an end to the different treatment of UK consumers who currently have to pay higher prices for downloads. The different treatment to UK consumers was a major concern for Which?, a UK consumer protection organisation, who filed a formal complaint with the Commission. The Commission’s antitrust proceedings have also clarified that it is not agreements between Apple and the major record companies which determine how the iTunes store is organised in Europe. Consequently, the Commission does not intend to take further action in this case.

The first benchmark report on international roaming was published on the 17 January 2008 by the European Regulators’ Group. This report confirms that implementation of the roaming regulation has generally gone smoothly with a high level of compliance in all EU Member States. The European Commission welcomes the findings of this report and urges national regulators to continue monitoring developments so that all European consumers benefit fully from lower roaming charges when making or receiving calls from abroad.

The European Commission  decided January 3rd 2008 to give a new boost to Europe's on-line content sector. EU citizens should be able to enjoy easier and faster access to a rich variety of music, TV programmes, films or games via the Internet, mobile phones or other devices. The Commission therefore encourages the content industry, telecoms companies and Internet service providers to work closely together to make available more content on-line, while at the same time ensuring a robust protection of intellectual property rights. The Commission also wants to facilitate copyright licences for on-line content covering the territory of several or all of the EU Member States. According to Commission studies, a truly Single Market without borders for Creative On-line Content could strengthen considerably the competitiveness of Europe's music, film and games industry and allow retail revenues of the sector to quadruple by 2010 if clear and consumer-friendly measures are taken by industry and public authorities.

On 20th  December 2007, the European Union  unanimously agreed to suspend import duties on all cereals except oats, buckwheat and millet for the current marketing year - which ends on June 30, 2008. The decision, was proposed the month before by the European Commission, is a reaction to the exceptionally tight situation on the world and EU cereals markets and the record price levels. Although the current levels of border protection for cereals are rather low, import duties are still applied for certain types of grains that are important for the balance of the EU market.

Europe has a strong and innovative automotive sector. This proposal aims to safeguard this competitiveness through provisions which are fair and flexible and which will stimulate the development and deployment of cutting edge automotive technologies. Under the legislation, several manufacturers will be able to group together to form a pool which can act jointly in meeting the specific emissions targets. Manufacturers in this pool will be required to abide by the rules of competition law.

The European Commission has published a White Paper on the Integration of EU Mortgage Markets. The White Paper summarises the conclusions of a comprehensive review of European residential mortgage markets and presents a balanced 'package' of measures to improve the efficiency and the competitiveness of these markets, to the benefit of consumers, mortgage lenders and investors alike. This is to be achieved in particular through improvement in the areas of cross-border supply, product diversity, consumer empowerment and customer mobility.

The State aid which the United Kingdom has implemented on the basis of the First time shareholder scheme (the scheme) is compatible with the common market as far as it concerns aid granted for the first time acquisition of a share in a new fishing vessel.