EuroCommerce, the EU trade representative group for retail and wholesale, has announced that it has formed a partnership with the European Business Summit in a special session entitled ‘Tapping the Potential of the E-Commerce Market for Europe’.
EuroCommerce director-general Christian Verschueren used this as an opportunity to remind retailers and wholesalers about the important changes facing the industry, as the market sees consumers ‘shift dramatically’ to online shopping.
Verschueren made a direct request to EU policy makers to prepare the sector with rules which would make it possible to respond to these changes, and to ‘face down increasing protectionist tendencies in national markets across Europe’.
Harmonised Single Market
He highlighted once more the importance of working properly with the digital single market, claiming it is vital for the future of retail and wholesale.
“Europe needs to harness the power of the largest market in the developed world in order to compete with other rapidly growing digital economies worldwide," he said. "While digital content is an important part of e-commerce, tangible goods remain the most important element of online selling for our sector."
"The digital single market can therefore only function if we have a harmonised and workable single market for goods, and one fit for the digital age. The barriers that still exist, and a worrying tendency by many member states to create new ones, are a priority for all three EU institutions and national governments to tackle, either by enforcing existing rules or agreeing new rules when this makes sense. Europe needs action to allow consumers and traders to make the most of the potential of a market of 500 million Europeans, and we need this now.”
Last week, Verschueren responded to what he believed to be a positive mid-term review of the Digital Market Strategy from the EU Commission.
He said that the representative group was happy to see the Commission take action on a number of shared interests. However, he stressed the need for clarity, and laid out a series of key priorities for EU decision makers to consider.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
