Brussels, 29/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - Progress is expected to be made on the harmonisation of national legislation on food supplements, financial services telesales, life insurance and the restricted use of specific dangerous chemicals at the Internal Market/Consumer Affairs Council on Wednesday 30 (afternoon) and Thursday 31 May in Brussels. Final decisions are not expected, but political agreement can be expected or is within reach for four vital bits of legislation to ensure the smooth functioning of the internal market while providing a high level of consumer protection. The large number of other dossiers on the Council agenda will be discussed, be the subject of conclusions or a simple progress report. The Council will be chaired by Leif Pagrotsky, Trade Minister at the Swedish Foreign Ministry, and Britta Lejon, Consumer Minister at the Swedish Justice Ministry. Commissioner Frits Bolkestein (Internal Market) and David Byrne (Consumer Affairs) will represent the European Commission. The agenda is as follows:
Food supplements: working on a Presidency compromise, the Council is expected to agree on a "common position" on the draft Directive (amended by the Commission to incorporate the amendments decided by the European Parliament on first reading) on harmonising national legislation to reconcile a high level of consumer health protection with the free circulation of food supplements.
Financial services telesales: the Council will try to reach political agreement on the draft Directive supplementing existing legislation on contracts negotiated remotely (Directives 97/7/EC and 98/27/EC) by adapting them to take account of issues relating to financial services. The aim is to increase consumer confidence in e-commerce to promote online sales and avoid creating distorted competition between the suppliers of services in the internal market. Most delegations agreed in March to rally round the Presidency's compromise once the final changes had been made, which means a qualified majority agreement can be expected on harmonising national legislation in areas where agreement looks likely (right for consumers to change their mind, payment methods, unsolicited services and information) as long as the last problem is sorted out - five Member States (Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal) want their high level of consumer protection to be upheld during the transition period to greater harmonisation.
Taking consumer interests into account in the internal market: the Presidency will give the Council a progress report on the discussions since the first informal Council on this issue (Lund, Sweden, 26/28 April).
New forms of market regulation and administrative cooperation between Member States: the Commission will report back on progress in its consideration of ways to achieve greater conciliation of consumer interests with trade issues in the run-up to the future publication of a Green Paper on fair trade.
Consumer credit: the Commission will inform the Council about its plan to present a draft Directive on greater harmonisation of national legislation and increasing consumer protection against excessive debt.
Consumers and the Euro: the Council will discuss the initiatives taken by the Member States to prepare consumers for the introduction of the Euro and on the feasibility of more coordinated action in specific areas.
European Food Safety Agency (EFA): in the absence of a European Parliament opinion in first reading (expected in June) on the proposal for new food safety legislation that would include the creation of the EFA, the Council will simply discuss the rules to govern the functioning of the Agency (scope of competence, referral methods and how the rapid warning system will work) which is expected to be up and running in January 2002.
Trademarks/Parallel imports: over dinner, the Presidency will speak about the changes it would like to make to Community trademark exhaustion scheme. Seven other Member States want the system changed (contrary to the Commission's views) in line with the international exhaustion scheme which would allow parallel imports of trademarked products into the EU. This subject was discussed at the informal Lund Council (see EUROPE of 30 April/1 May, p. 9).