On 22 March, the European Union has signed the Council of Europe's Convention on information and legal co-operation concerning 'Information Society Services', without reservation as to ratification.
The aim of this Convention, which was prepared in close co-operation between the Council of Europe and the European Commission, is to improve the exchange of information between all 45 countries in Europe about pending new legislation for the information society. The Council of Europe will act as a clearing-house for draft legislation and provide a harmonised approach to the regulation of on-line services at the pan-European level. Member states of the European Union were already familiar with this obligation, under the 'Transparency' directive (98/48/EC), that allows the Commission to assess draft national legislation affecting the information society as to its compatibility with Community law. The evaluation of this directive in February 2003, was highly positive, like the evaluation of it's mother-directive, nor 98/34/EC, that requires member states to give prior notification about any technical regulation on products. Between 1999 and 2001, the Commission received 1800 of these notifications, all published on a special Commission website aimed at enterprises.
Article 4 of the Convention says: "Each Party shall transmit, where practicable by electronic means, to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe the texts of draft domestic regulations which are aimed specifically at 'Information Society Services' and which are at a stage of preparation in which it is still possible for them to be substantially amended, as well as a short summary of these texts in English or French. The Parties shall communicate the draft again under the above conditions if they make changes to the draft that have the effect of significantly altering its scope, shortening the timetable originally envisaged for implementation, adding specifications or requirements, or making the latter more restrictive."
Council of Europe Convention on information exchange (22.03.2004)
http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=180&...
Commission evaluation report 'transparency' directive, COM(2003)69 (13.02.2003)
http://europa.eu.int/cgi-bin/eur-lex/udl.pl?REQUEST=Service-Search&...
Commission website with notified drafts
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/tris/