Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-11-17-Speech-1-209"
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"en.20081117.26.1-209"2
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"Mr President, The internal market is an extremely important part of the European cooperation, but for many consumers it is nothing more than a vague concept. Irrespective of how well we recognise its importance, rules and provisions, we are all consumers and are all affected by how the internal market operates. I have always maintained that if we have satisfied and confident European consumers, we will also have an internal market that operates efficiently and thrives.
In order to win this trust, we must make the internal market more efficient and sensitive to citizens’ expectations and problems. This does not necessarily mean more or stricter legislation and rules imposed by the EU. Information, education and self-regulation can often be a more appropriate and more effective solution. Irrespective of how we solve the problems, the aim must always be to ensure that we safeguard consumers’ rights so that they can make good and well-founded decisions. This is, of course, also a good thing for the market itself. Therefore, the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection and I welcome the Consumer Markets Scoreboard that the Commission presented at the request of the Committee. We believe that it could be an important tool for the future development of consumer policy.
The internal market comprises around 500 million consumers and has a large supply of goods and services. It is, of course, impossible to examine in detail all aspects of the internal market. It is therefore important to use analytic resources where they are actually needed most. I welcome the five areas that the Commission has focused on, namely complaints, price levels, satisfaction, switching and safety. These five main indicators are relevant and applicable, even if there will, over time, be a need to further develop and improve them and maybe also to include some new categories.
I would also like to stress the importance of raising awareness of the Scoreboard amongst consumers themselves and the general public. It is therefore important for it to be written in an easily accessible language. Moreover, the Scoreboard should be visible on relevant websites.
Finally, I would like to say that it will take time to develop the Scoreboard, partly because we have made very different degrees of progress in the different Member States with regard to consumer policy and consumer protection, but also because we are different, with different cultures and different traditions. We must be patient and give this Consumer Markets Scoreboard time.
I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Commissioner Kuneva and her secretariat, as well as my own secretariat, for their extremely constructive cooperation."@en1
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