Brussels, 07/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - The budget proposed for the 2014-2020 consumer programme (€197 million) is not enough to meet the new challenges that will face EU consumer policy in 2020, the Parliament's internal market committee chaired by Malcolm Harbour (ECR, UK) said on Thursday 6 September, in harmony with the rapporteur, Robert Rochefort (ALDE France). With this announcement, the members of the committee opened the road to informal talks with the Council on the new programme for which they hope to reshuffle the priorities, among other things to give greater support to consumer organisations. The draft resolution, to be submitted to the Parliament plenary session, was adopted by a large majority (24 votes in favour, 1 abstention).
MEPs approve of the programme's priorities proposed by the Commission in May this year (see EUROPE 10618) but would like to see greater importance granted to product safety measures. To achieve this, they recommend switching 3% of the funds allocated to consumer information and education to consumer safety, thus increasing funding for the latter to 25% of the overall consumer budget and reducing it for the former to 34%.
Given the importance of strengthening consumer confidence in improving the way the internal market works, MEPs want to guarantee adequate funding for European consumer organisations and centres as they have a major role in providing information and assistance to consumers.
Also recommended by MEPs is the creation of an online portal for consumer organisations to promote the exchange of best practice and expertise by freely sharing available training material and enhancing networking.
They also advocate the funding of price comparison website development, as this tool could make consumers more independent and better informed by allowing them to compare data, including for cross-border cases. To enhance consumers' faith in price comparison websites, funding could also support the development of a certification label for those websites, the resolution suggests.
The informal talks are aimed at reaching a first reading agreement on the 2014-2020 consumer programme. (AN/transl.jl)