Brussels, 05/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - At the fourth annual general assembly of consumer associations, in Brussels on the initiative of the European Commission, the Italian associations strongly criticised the Commission's Health/Consumer Directorate General (DG SANCO) for its lack of transparency in its procedures for allocating funds to consumer organisations eligible for direct financial backing. During the assembly, which brought together 200 representatives of consumer organisations of the European Union, there was indeed a workshop devoted to Commission support for consumer associations to promote their effectiveness within the internal market.
In a press release, the CNCU (Consiglio nazionale dei Consumatori e degli Utenti) deplored the steep reduction in the number of projects financed by this Directorate General, noting that in Budget 2001, 50% of funds earmarked for consumer associations had been neither used nor programmed, and that the ratio of approval had been 36 projects out of 400 in 2000, against 23 out of 96 in 2001. The CNCU declared that it did not know "what the Commission intends doing with the remaining 900 million euro", and wonders "why does not the Commission render public the selection criteria for projects and the composition". The Italian associations which presented a paper on transparency, would have liked the workshop to have had a broad debate on the subject, and are surprised that no mention of this appeared in the Assembly's conclusions (the paper may be consulted on the Italian website: http://www.tuttoconsumatori.it ).