Brussels, 11/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission intends to develop a common methodology for classifying consumer complaints which can be used to help identify markets in various sectors of the European economy which malfunction. To this end, on Friday 11 July, EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva launched a public consultation exercise to gather contributions from all interested parties.
At the present time, the information available to the European Commission on how the internal market is working, from the consumer's point of view, does not allow cross-country comparisons or proper monitoring of complaints, particularly in the case of regulated markets.
The cross-country comparisons or benchmarking of markets will provide an instrument to fill this gap. It will allow the Commission to make progress in developing indicators to provide evidence on how markets in various sectors of the economy perform from a consumer perspective (prices, complaints, rates for changing supplier, consumer satisfaction, security). Kuneva's staff are putting the finishing touches to the Consumer Markets Scoreboard, which will be a very useful complement to the Single market Scoreboard (see EUROPE 9592).
The ultimate aim is to give European consumers effective ways of fully benefitting, with confidence, from the opportunities offered by the single market - something that is far from being the
case today. Those who wish to take part in the consultation exercise can do so online at http: //http://www.ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/consultations/index_en.htm (A.N./transl.rt)