The EU Member State ministers responsible for consumer affairs are invited to Bilbao (Palacio Euskalduna), on the afternoon of Monday 24 July, for an informal exchange of views on the Consumer Agenda 2021-2025, which guides EU consumer policy, and on the promotion of sustainable consumption based on new rights for consumers and requirements for industry.
At this informal meeting, which will precede the meeting of the ministers for Industry and Competitiveness, the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council hopes to find ways to increase consumer empowerment in the green transition and to move forward on the legislative dossiers on the table of the EU Council and the European Parliament.
The discussions will be chaired by Spain’s Minister for Consumer Affairs, Alberto Garzón. European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders will represent the European Commission.
Consumer agenda. The ministers will be invited to take stock of the actions implemented since 2020, when this ‘new Agenda’ focusing on the digital and green transition was adopted (see EUROPE 12679/12, 12663/21) and to outline the prospects for staying the course. Sustainable consumption, with the aim of making consumers the driving force behind the post-Covid-19 recovery of the European economy, is one of the key areas of action in this agenda, which has yet to be finalised.
Promoting sustainable consumption. In particular, the Spanish Presidency wishes to initiate an in-depth dialogue on how digitalisation can promote sustainability through informed consumer choice.
Above all, it wants to make progress, with the Member States, on three legislative texts that it considers to be priorities during its six months at the head of the EU Council:
- the March 2022 proposal for a directive on ‘empowering consumers to play an active role in the green transition’ by introducing a right to information on the lifespan and reparability of products and by combating premature obsolescence of products - a text on which negotiations between the EU Council and the European Parliament are underway (see EUROPE 13211/42);
- the proposed directive, also due in March 2022, on the justification and communication of environmental claims to combat greenwashing by companies (see EUROPE 13147/6);
- the ‘right to repair’ directive proposed in March 2023 to promote the repair of defective products through common rules - legislation on which the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection has just given its opinion (see EUROPE 13225/12).
The Spanish Presidency hopes that the EU ‘Competitiveness’ Council on 7 December will be able to adopt its negotiating position (a ‘general approach’ of the EU Council). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)