The European Commission wants to know what framework is needed to unleash the potential economic and societal benefits of the IoT, whilst ensuring an adequate level of control of the devices in gathering, processing and storing information. The consultation looks at users' behavioural patterns, location and preferences.  The Commission wants to ensure that the rights of individuals are respected and is inviting comments which must be received by 5th July 2012.

Through the consultation, the Commission is seeking views on privacy, safety and security, security of critical IoT supported infrastructure, ethics, interoperability, governance and standards.  The results of the consultation will feed into the Commission's Recommendation on the IoT, which is planned to be presented by summer 2013.

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a) increase the transparency of fees linked to the operation of bank accounts

b) help consumers to smoothly switch between account providers

c) facilitate consumers’ access to basic bank accounts.

However, such initiatives have followed different approaches and have had varying degrees of success. Consequently, consumers in different countries enjoy different levels of protection and the resulting patchwork of rules and codes of conduct renders cross-border mobility of market actors more difficult.

Consumers should have access to bank account services anywhere in the EU, whatever their Member State of permanent residence is, and should be able to easily switch bank account providers, including on a cross-border mode. All this requires transparent and comparable information on fees related to bank accounts.

The purpose of this consultation is to gather stakeholders’ views and assess the need for action on the possible measures to be taken in relation to the issues of transparency and comparability of bank account fees, bank account switching and access to a basic payment account.

For more information, contact us or view:
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2012/bank_accounts_en.htm

The Commission defines 'accessibility' as meaning that people with disabilities have access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, transportation, information and communications including technologies and systems (ICT), and other goods, facilities and services in line with Art. 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), to which the EU is a party.

European company law is a cornerstone of the internal market. EU company law has evolved significantly over the last 40 years.

The scope of EU harmonisation covers: the protection of interest of shareholders and others, the constitution and maintenance of public limited-liability companies' capital, takeover bids, branches disclosure, mergers and divisions, minimum rules for single-member private limited-liability companies, shareholders' rights and related areas such as financial reporting and accounting.

Considerable work has also been accomplished on different legal forms such as the European Company (SE), the European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG) and the European Cooperative Society (SCE).

In recent times, however, the adoption of European company law initiatives has become more difficult.

These difficulties are, for example, illustrated by the lack of progress on some simplification initiatives and on the proposed statute of the European Private Company (SPE).

Nevertheless, at the same time, the cross-border dimension of business has grown tremendously both from a company and from a consumer perspective.

Against this backdrop, DG Internal Market and Services launched a reflection exercise at the end of 2010 with the creation of an ad hoc reflection group composed of eminent academics.

This group presented a report to the Commission which contained a number of recommendations for action.

The Commission now wishes to launch a public consultation to seek views from all stakeholders on European company law from 2012 onwards.

For further information, contact us, or view:
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2012/company_law_en.htm

Find out more from this link:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/admin-burdens-reduction/home_en.htm