Ministers set to adopt supervisory conclusions.
Member states are approaching – for the first time – agreement on the regulation of gambling across the EU
After more than two years of discussions, the Competitiveness Council is scheduled to adopt tomorrow (10 December) conclusions on the supervisory role of national gambling regulatory authorities.
This will be the first real sign of progress on supervision of an industry worth some €80 billion a year in the EU.
Member states hold widely differing views on gambling control, but there now appears to be a willingness to reach understanding on regulation, led by France (which initiated these discussions when it held the Union’s rotating presidency in 2008) and the Netherlands. The result would be joint work to improve harmonisation in gambling regulation across the EU – particularly of online betting, which is difficult to police across borders.
At their meeting ministers are expected to recognise the scope for tackling cross-border problems. This will notably include co-operation between national regulatory authorities to share information about gambling companies, so they can more easily protect consumers and children and make sure that games of chance are not weighted against players.
Resistance to a common framework has come from the UK, which has some of the EU’s most liberal gambling laws, and Malta, where many online gambling companies are based. Countries with stricter rules have argued for greater control across the EU – although Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain have begun to relax their regulations recently, mainly because of infringement proceedings against their legislation, launched by the European Commission and backed by the European Court of Justice.
Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain have wholly or partially state-owned monopolies for gambling, and eight member states – Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Romania – ban online gambling altogether.
A European Commission public consultation that was planned for the end of 2010 has been delayed until early next year.
Also at the Competitiveness Council tomorrow, member states are to talk informally about a directive on consumer rights, in the hope that an agreement can be reached before the end of the year. The price of an agreement is likely, however, to include an overall dilution of the measure, and complete removal of provisions that were proposed on consumer rights specific to sales contracts and consumer rights concerning contract terms.
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