European Commission Vows to Boost eCommerce by Removing its Barriers
Editor’s note: The following is a guest post by Michael Essany.
On Thursday, the eC
ommerce industry awoke to news of the European Commission’s plan to double the share of eCommerce in retail sales – a move that would simultaneously increase the role of the internet sector in Europe’s GDP.
The European Commission, which serves as the powerful executive body of the European Union, is largely responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, and running the day-to-day operations of the European Union.
At a time when great economic headwinds persist across Europe, any proactive efforts to advance the EU’s economic strength while driving job growth are widely viewed as positive steps among the European population. As a result, the body certainly has the political leverage and governmentalauthority to carry out its freshly unveiled and highly ambitious plan.
Government Backed Growth Assured
This week, the European Union presented to the public a 16-point plan that will aggressively promote eCommerce in the 27-nation economic union.
“In the difficult circumstances facing Europe we must seize every source of activity and new jobs as a matter of urgency,” said EC members in a public statement. “The action plan we are presenting today will create new opportunities for citizens and businesses and will bring Europe much-needed growth and employment.”
The European Commission’s so-called “action plan” is intended to double the volume of eCcommerce in Europe within three years. According to the EC, the internet economy now creates an estimated 2.6 jobs for every “offline job” lost today.
The proposed steps, however, primarily deal with overcoming present obstacles to cross-border online purchasing. Citing a 2009 study, the Commission says that although more than 50% of EU retailers are selling to consumers online, only 21% receive orders from online shoppers in other countries.
Details made public Thursday also show that the Commission is making it a high priority to finally address the longstanding need to deploy high-speed networks and advanced technological solutions across the European Union.
The full proposal to the European Parliament can be read here.
Economic Hopes Pinned to eCommerce
In the big picture, European Commissioners Michel Barnier, NeelieKroes, and John Dali believe that their robuste Commerce initiative will spark new opportunities for citizens and businesses as Europe continues to recover from and resist further economic calamities.
“Each year,” Kroesreveals, “200 million Europeans – 40% of all citizens – buy over the internet. But faced with different national rules and systems, less than one quarter of that number do so across national borders.”
With vast economic hopes underpinning the proposed plan of action, Europe’s lawmakers vow to be resolute in their aims to insure that Europeans don’t fall behind the rest of the world where eCommerce is already boosting both economies and job growth at a significant and perpetually accelerating pace.
“If 15% of retail sales were eCommerce and the obstacles to the internal market were removed,” the EC claims, “the gains for consumers might be as much as 204 billion euros (US $259.2 billion), or 1.7% of European GDP.”
Source: European Commission
