Luxembourg, 13/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - The first debate (open to the public) on the over-indebtedness of European consumers and possible solutions to remedy it confirmed both the interest and concerns of ministers for this growing phenomenon in Member States. Within the Council, the delegations unanimously recognised the need to improve the collection of statistical data and information exchange to have a more precise idea of the magnitude of the problem. A very large majority of them pointed that that the competence in this field remained in the hands of Member States, but were in favour of limited Community action - at least initially - in the work of improving and synthesizing reliable and homogenous data that, if necessary, would allow for reflection on the potential cross-border development of the problem, under the joint influence of electronic commerce and the distance sales of financial services. This majority preference fell in line with Commissioner Byrne's introductory address. Only Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal pleaded in favour of Community legislation, idea to which the United Kingdom proved to be the most hostile. National experiences presented in turn demonstrated that most Member States have adopted measures, ranging from voluntary initiatives based on dialogue between consumer associations and credit institutions (like in Britain), to legislation on debt clearance, private bankruptcy, the collective settlement or stabilisation (Belgium, France, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden), passing by consumer information demanded of consumer credit institutions at the time of the contract (Denmark) and assistance to over-indebted consumers. Talks also showed great differences in the level of indebtedness of households according to Member States: Germany, for example, announced the impressive figure of 2.6 million over-indebted households, or 7%, Greece, on the other hand, declared that it was affected very little by over-indebtedness, consumer credit not being widespread on its territory. Spain stressed that over-indebtedness coincided with periods of poor economic performance, which Luxembourg strongly contradicted (5% of households are over-indebted despite the favourable economic climate), and, to a lesser extent, Sweden, stressing the need to prevent the scourge "when all is going well".
At the end of the debate, Commissioner Byrne thanked the delegations for this "anthology of ideas" on possible EU action that would focus on consumer information and information to lender, and on information exchange on the possibilities of cross-border loans. Welcoming the emphasis placed by the Irish and Portuguese delegations on the social dimension of over-indebtedness, the Commissioner announced that he would report back to his colleague for social affairs, Mrs. Diamantopoulou.