According to a March 24 article in The Lawyer.com, the Civil Justice Council (CJC), a statutorily-created advisory organization to the British government, is considering proposing changes to the UK justice system that could, among other things, provide for an opt-out procedure similar to that applicable in FRCP 23(b)(3) actions, as opposed to the opt-in procedure for collective actions currently available in many EU jurisdictions. http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=131831&d=415&h=417&f=416. As the article discusses, the CJC is considering reforms that would be a hybrid of existing UK and US procedures.
A copy of a comprehensive February 2008 report by the CJC discussing “collective redress” reforms can be found at its website:
http://www.civiljusticecouncil.gov.uk/files/collective_redress.pdf.
As noted on page 168 of that report, “Other opt-out regimes have recently been introduced in Europe (Spain, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands), each of which has different features and pre-conditions for use.” The CJC’s January 2008 report includes an interesting comparison in participation rates in cases that utilized an opt-out process versus those that used an opt-in process.
Meanwhile, in Italy, a new law passed late last year that goes into effect this year 2008 provides for class action-style collective lawsuits to be filed by limited categories of associations. The Mass Tort Litigation Blog has reprinted in English the relevant collective action provisions of the new law, which allows certain consumer associations to bring actions on behalf of collective interests:
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/mass_tort_litigation/2008/01/italys-new-clas.html
For more about the CJC, see http://www.civiljusticecouncil.gov.uk/about/about.htm
ClassActionBlawg.com 
[…] This change comes as other EU countries are considering class action reforms (See my April 1 entry here). The article also remarks that the EU is considering the possibility of adopting a uniform class […]
[…] consider potential reforms for dealing with mass and class action lawsuits (see my previous entries here and here), Canadian class actions are becomming more similar to those in the United States, […]
[…] protection, european class action, free market, international class action, tort reform | I have previously commented on various class action reforms being considered or implemented in Europe. These reforms and the […]
[…] “Public Advisory Body” called the Civil Justice Council. Following a report issued in February, the CJC held a conference in March and issued specific recommendations for reforms to collective […]
[…] occuring after the law’s effective date. At first, I wasn’t sure whether this April 1, 2008, ClassActionBlawg article announcing Italy’s first class action law was just very prescient or an April fool’s […]