Cost of Non-Europe in the Single Market

On 3 October 2014, the EU-Parliament has published part III of its study "The Cost of Non-Europe" (CoNE) analysing the "Digital Single Market" (DSM). The study focusses is on the gaps in EU legislation which may constrain the functioning of the DSM and, to a certain extent on informational gaps and shortcomings in the implementation of existing EU-level legislation that can significantly hamper the functioning of the DSM.

Scope

The study was prepared by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) and has considered legislation governing many aspects relevant for the DSM, including contract law, data protection and privacy, intellectual property and horizontal enablers of the DSM such as payment systems, e-Identification, postal and parcel delivery services.

Identified Shortcomings

"The following gaps have been identified:

• In the area of cloud computing, the lack of liability of cloud computing service providers and the inconsistency of transnational laws and regulations.
• In the area of payments no major legislative gaps were identified. However, from the perspective of the functioning of the DSM the most important gaps are related to the substantial heterogeneity of commercial practices between Member States and the excessive costs of making cross-border payments.
• In the area of postal and parcel delivery, individual legislative gaps were not identified. However, considerable information gaps exist in relation to the availability of various delivery services and associated delivery options – both for consumers and e-retailers. It remains to be seen how much can be achieved by voluntary self-regulation of the sector and the adoption of best practices."
  (EU Parliament, "The Cost of Non-Europe in the Single Market", III - Digital Single Market, Study by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), 3 October 2014, page 9)

Approach and Identified Cost

"The study follows a bottom-up approach to quantification of those gaps that have been explicitly identified and for which a quantification of direct costs was feasible. This contrasts with an approach typically adopted in other analyses trying to quantify the effects of completing the DSM that rely on top-down approaches where some general assumptions drive overall results.

The estimated direct CoNE associated with identified gaps ranged between € 36 billion to € 75 billion per annum."
(EU Parliament, "The Cost of Non-Europe in the Single Market", III - Digital Single Market, Study by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), 3 October 2014, page 10)

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EU Parliament, "The Cost of Non-Europe in the Single Market", III - Digital Single Market, Study by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), 3 October 2014

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