Hollywood agents regularly comb Brussels for their future stars. This week, we had President Barroso featuring as King Kong, beating his chest and roaring, hoping to terrify the financial markets into having faith in the euro.

Commissioner for justice, Viviane Reding, has appeared in several guises before - country-and-western singer and cowboy. Now she has turned up in a film noir, as the fast-talking, no-nonsense dame, battling her way through the dangerous alleys of European contract law in search of a better life. Many UK audiences cannot bear the blood-and-gore of contract law films. This one has a special EU certificate, suitable only for those mature enough to tolerate harmonising initiatives. Be warned before you read further.

Contract law has been a long saga - with weekly serials, just like in the early days of cinema - and this week commissioner Reding delivered her first shot: an optional (I stress optional) Common European Sales Law. The Commission claims that it will facilitate trade by offering a single set of rules for cross-border contracts in all 27 EU countries. If traders offer products on the basis of the Common European Sales Law, consumers will have the option of choosing it with just one click of a mouse.

The Commission's proposal now needs approval from EU member states – guess which way the UK will vote? - and the European Parliament (which has already signalled its overwhelming support in a vote earlier this year). Some UK lawyers have given early negative views in a piece in the Gazette, and the Law Society has issued a statement with doubts and warnings.

The Common European Sales Law will be applicable in the following circumstances:

  • only if both parties voluntarily and expressly agree to it;
  • to cross-border contracts, where most of the problems of additional transaction costs and legal complexity arise - member states will have the choice to make the Common European Sales Law applicable to domestic contracts as well;
  • to contracts for the sale of goods – the bulk of intra-EU trade – as well as digital content contracts, such as music, movies, software or smart-phone applications;
  • for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business transactions;
  • if one party is established in a member state of the EU (traders can use the same set of contract terms when dealing with other traders from within and from outside the EU, giving the Common European Sales Law an international dimension).

The Commission claims that traders who are dissuaded from cross-border transactions due to current contract law obstacles forego at least €26bn in intra-EU trade every year. Meanwhile, it says, 500 million consumers in Europe lose out on greater choice and lower prices because fewer firms make cross-border offers, particularly in smaller national markets.

There will be doubtless be plenty of gun-slinging challenges in the future, particularly from Hollywood’s favourite baddies - those with an English accent.

Commissioner Reding has made other appearances as well. The lipsticked vamp is within her repertoire. I have written before about the opposition to her measure to ensure the right to a lawyer from the beginning to end of criminal proceedings for suspects and defendants in all member states. Five member states, including the UK, have indicated their opposition. The signs here are that the tough-talking Commissioner will not give up - but will also not get into a gunfight. Rather, she will turn the lights low, put on some old Frank Sinatra records, and play a long game of persuasion.

It will not be long before she is asked to leave her footprint outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.

Jonathan Goldsmith is secretary general of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, which represents about one million European lawyers through its member bars and law societies. He blogs weekly for the Gazette on European affairs