Commission launches consultation on e-business legal constraints
The Commission has launched an eight-week Internet consultation to assess the remaining legal barriers met by enterprises when conducting their business electronically. Proposed under the eEurope Action Plan 2005, the consultation will collect feedback and practical experiences from the enterprises actively involved in e-business practices, as well as other interested parties, namely, chambers of commerce and business associations. Commenting on the scope of the consultation questionnaire, Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen said: 'The EU legal framework for e-business is well and widely established. It's now time to take stock of remaining barriers and decide how to remove them. This discussion should be based on practical examples and experience, not just on theoretical views of what may go wrong.' The consultation will assess, in particular, difficulties arising from diverging national legal provisions for offline and online business and e-business practices, such as electronic invoicing within the European Union, the acceding and candidate countries.