ABSTRACT
At first glance, the most fundamental controversies surrounding the construction of Europe do not revolve around the issue of the development of European Contract Law or even European private law. Most European countries codified their civil law in the nineteenth century or at the beginning of the twentieth century. In Europe, the respective roles of the three European institutions are schematically as follows: the European Commission proposes, the Parliament deliberates and legislates, and the Council decides. Community institutions have long preferred the issuing of directives, which Member States had to transpose into their own legal systems. As for political institutions, faced with the current euroscepticism, they are proceeding with the greatest prudence. What the institutions were unable to do, for lack of a political will and the legal basis underlying this lack, the parties could do by designating a Community instrument which has value only as an optional model.
