The ministers of the EU27 Member States are meeting in Brussels on Friday 19 April for an informal meeting under the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
In particular, they will be taking stock of the progress made in terms of consumer protection under the Belgian Presidency and discussing the future impact of artificial intelligence in this area.
The meeting agenda also includes an item on the right of consumers to access useful and affordable financial services in a context of increasing digitalisation of the sector, as well as a discussion on the development of more sustainable e-commerce.
The Belgian Secretary of State, Alexia Bertrand, is due to present the Belgian system of information on purchases of second-hand vehicles, presented as an example of how to combat fraud. At the meeting, the Member States may wish to consider the widespread introduction of this system throughout the EU.
At the start of its Presidency, Belgium announced that it wanted to make empowering European consumers one of its priorities for its six-month term (see EUROPE 13323/6), particularly in the area of sustainability.
A number of issues were identified as priorities at the start of the year: the directive on the effective right to repair for defective products (see EUROPE 13350/34), the directive on the communication and substantiation of green claims by companies (see EUROPE 13351/15) and the regulation on toy safety (see EUROPE 13370/26).
Of these three dossiers, only the regulation on toy safety has not yet reached the end of the legislative process. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)