On Monday, Brian Cowen, the Irish Foreign Minister and Chairman of the European Union Council, ratified, on behalf of the European Union, the Convention on Information and Legal Co-operation concerning Information Society Services.
The Convention has been in existence since October 2001. It is, according to the Council of Europe, intended to empower the Council to act as "a clearing-house" for draft legislation in the field of Information Society Services "in order to provide a harmonised approach to the regulation of on-line services at the pan-European level."
It is based on the 1998 EU "Notifications" Directive, which introduced a system of legislative transparency to the EU.
Each party to the Convention can comment on drafts notified by the other parties, thereby contributing to the legislative process setting up new rules for on-line services.
The plan is that this mechanism will boost transparency and, in the long run, convergence of rules at international level. This could benefit not only national authorities but also EU individuals and businesses.
In addition to the 45 Member States of the Council of Europe, observer States (such as the US, Canada, Japan and Mexico) as well as the European Union are entitled to become members of the Convention.
The Convention will not enter into force until five signatories have ratified it. To date only the EU and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina have signed the Convention.
The European Commission welcomed the ratification, with Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein commenting:
"I am very pleased that the EU is now a signatory to this Convention. Electronic services are by their very nature international and it is no good thinking they can be regulated in one country or group of countries in isolation from the rest of Europe, or indeed the world. This notification system will inspire the dissemination of good practice and make sure that the EU and its Member States will be aware of proposed regulations made outside their borders and will be able to express concerns if they feel there may be negative repercussions inside their borders."