"The sharing economy offers great opportunities for cities and regions. However, if we want to shape the sector's future at grassroots level to the benefit of our people, we urgently need to tackle the persisting legal uncertainties in a coordinated way and at EU level," stressed Benedetta Brighenti, deputy mayor of the municipality of Castelnuovo Rangone (PES, Italy). Her draft opinion on the Collaborative economy and online platforms: a shared view of cities and regions was unanimously adopted by members of the CoR's ECON commission and warmly welcomed by the European Parliament's rapporteur Nicola Danti (S&D/Italy), who stressed that "Compared to other countries, Europe risks falling behind in this innovative sector. There is a huge market for the sharing economy, yet no internal market."
Reacting to the European Commission guidelines on a European agenda for the collaborative economy, published in June 2016, Ms Brighenti's draft opinion makes a series of recommendations, including:
- provide clear legal rules for European start-ups in order to guarantee fair competition and enable them to be competitive on the world stage;
- identify more accurately the social responsibilities of platforms towards their workers, in terms of working conditions, health care coverage, paid sick leave, unemployment benefits, pension rights, etc.
- identify thresholds for market access requirements of service providers as well as consumer protection rules;
- analyse the gains and savings that collaborative initiatives generate in environmental and social terms;
- improve compliance by service providers with tax regulations, for example regarding the collection of tourist taxes;
- involve local and regional authorities in future assessments of the collaborative economy by setting up a forum of 'collaborative economy cities' to share experiences and exchange best practice.
The draft opinion is scheduled to be adopted at the CoR plenary on 7-8 December 2016.
