As the guarantee of the knowledge of consumer rights that are ensured by EU legislation, and of consumers’ trust in the single market, consumer policy is also the best means of restoring European citizens' shattered trust in the EU institutions, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) stated in a letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday 18 April.
For all these reasons, BEUC clearly wants European consumers to remain at the centre of the European Union of the future, and is concerned about certain options envisaged by the European Commission in its White Paper on the future of the EU with 27 member states (see EUROPE 11736).
Considering it of the utmost importance to protect consumers' interests, in line with Article 12 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, BEUC says it is convinced that the EU has obtained "impressive achievements" as regards " protecting consumers' health and safety, and in promoting their legal and economic interests". These are the terms used by Monique Goyens, BEUC director general, in her letter – which has also been sent to European Commissioner for Justice and Consumers Vera Jourova.
BEUC thus considers that scenarios two (Nothing but the Single Market) and four (Doing less but more effectively) of the Commission's White Paper – options "that seem to overlook that consumer policy is, and must be, an integral part of any economic policy and, consequently, of the EU’s single market policy" – must be ruled out. Goyens argues that there is no single market possible without a strong consumer policy, and she highlights the contradictions of scenario four. Involving a deepening of the single market in certain key new areas, scenario four would reduce EU consumer policy to a minimum, even though "new important areas for the single market, such as the Internet of Things, will not work if consumer protection standards do not follow developments on the market". Scenario four furthermore provides for an ambitious trade policy, although there is "no common trade policy possible without common consumer policy ", BEUC states.
The last, but not least, argument put forward by Goyens is that of bringing EU citizens closer. "A well-communicated, inclusive consumer policy is the best tool to demonstrate the added-value of the EU to sections of the population that have lost faith in its institutions", she says.
In support of its arguments, BEUC lists everything in a brochure that it considers to be tangible benefits of EU consumer policy as it stands thus far. The brochure can be found online at:
http://www.beuc.eu/publications/beuc-x-2017-033_mgo_list_of_tangible_eu_consumer_wins.pdf (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)