MEPs press Commission for European egaming harmonisation
Rapporteur and Conservative MEP Ashley Fox tells influential internal market committee that only way to approach regulation is to attempt to achieve certain level of harmonisation throughout EU, while still respecting principle of subsidiarity.
The committee responsible for responding to the European Commission’s Action Plan towards a “comprehensive European framework for online gambling” has heard that the only way to approach regulation is to “achieve a “certain level” of harmonisation across Member States.
The European Parliamentary Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) listened to comments by rapporteur and Conservative MEP Ashley Fox who suggested that the only way to approach regulation is to attempt to achieve a certain level of harmonisation throughout the EU, while still respecting the principle of subsidiarity, or de-centralised or local laws.
Fox’s draft report focused on the enforcement of EU law, the enhancement of administrative co-operation, for example through a common identification system and self-blocking mechanisms, consumer protection, responsible advertising and actions aimed at combating money laundering and ensuring the integrity of sports, a summary on the European Parliament website said.
The European People’s Party (EPP), Europe’s largest political organisation with 74 member-parties from 40 countries and 13 European Commissioners including the President, and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats’ (S&D) shadow rapporteurs emphasised the need to “respect” the different regulatory approaches of Member States in a sector of the economy which it described as “not resembling ordinary economic activities”. They also welcomed the Commission’s suggested actions regarding administrative cooperation, consumer protection, sports integrity and money laundering.
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) called the EC’s Communication “not ambitious enough” and that legally binding measures are necessary at EU level, while a Green Party representative concluded that Member States have “failed” to achieve what is necessary to protect consumers, in particular with regards to advertising.
The deadline for amendments to the draft report is April 4 2013, while the document is expected to receive its first reading in Parliament in July however this has yet to be confirmed by the Commission.
The EC unveiled its delayed egaming Action Plan at the end of October last year aimed at “building a better framework for online gambling services in the EU”.
At the time European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) called for “hard action” from the Commission to “curb market fragmentation and protect consumers”. It described the Communication and Action Plan “ that was due to be presented last September “ as a “key test” as to whether or not the body would allow the fragmentation of the industry to continue or whether consumers would “continue to suffer different levels of protection” through the European Union.
The Action Plan follows from the EC’s March 2011 Green Paper document on the state of the industry and the patchwork of regulation that has spread across Europe since Italy regulated in 2007.