Brussels, 06/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday the European Commission will adopt a new Consumer Policy Strategy for the next five years. Consumer policy in this strategy covers safety, economic and legal issues relevant to consumers in the marketplace, consumer information and education, the promotion of consumer organisations and their contribution with other stakeholders to consumer policy development. Food safety issues are not covered by the scope of this strategy as they have their own legislative agenda.
A high common level of consumer protection, effective enforcement of consumer protection rules and the involvement of consumer organisations in EU policies - these are the three objectives of the new consumer policy strategy designed in the medium-term to help achieve the integration of consumer concerns into all other EU policies (the internal market, environment and sustainable development, transport, financial services, competition, agriculture, foreign trade, etc) to maximise the benefits of the Internal Market for consumers and to prepare for enlargement.
The Communication to the Council and to Parliament that the College will adopt on the multiannual strategy for 2002-2006 is a political document outlining a general approach and setting out he main points recommended by the Commission to implement it. The general approach is combined with a short term rolling programme annexed to the Commination with the details of the various programmes that will be regularly reviewed, explained the Consumer Policy Commissioner, David Byrne; when he presented an outline of the strategy to reporters on Monday. The strategy can be summarised as follows:
A high common level of consumer protection through initiatives to follow up on commercial practices issues addressed by the Green Paper on EU Consumer Protection (currently undergoing a consultation procedure) and on the safety of services.
Effective enforcement of consumer protection rules to ensure consumer confidence as the degree of economic integration in the internal market increases, particularly cross-border transactions. Priority actions include developing an administrative cooperation framework between Member States and of redress mechanisms for consumers.
The Commission feels that consumers and consumer representatives should have the capacity and resources needed to promote their interests on an equal footing with the other stakeholders involved and the main actions to achieve this will include the review of mechanisms for participation of consumer organisations in EU policy making and the setting up of education and capacity-building projects.
The Commination to be adopted on Monday by the College of Commissioners will be presented to the Internal Market/Consumer Council on 21 May 2002, with a view to being the subject of a Council resolution under the Danish Presidency. No details of funding have yet been released to accompany the strategy. The budget will be decided in the near future when the legal basis for the first five years of the strategy has been endorsed (the previous strategy covered 1999-2001). To give some idea of the sums involved, David Byrne said he would be preparing the draft budget from a starting point of EUR 22 million a year.