Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-09-Speech-2-011"
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"en.20100309.4.2-011"2
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"Mr President, first and foremost, I would like to start by thanking the shadow rapporteurs and others involved for the good cooperation we have enjoyed over the period in which we were working on the Consumer Markets Scoreboard. I am also pleased that once again, we have produced a report that has the support of the overwhelming majority of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.
I have always maintained that we need confident and satisfied consumers in the EU in order for the internal market to operate properly. It was therefore pleasing that in 2007, we got a Commissioner with specific responsibility for consumer issues. Partly as a result of Mrs Kuneva’s strong personal commitment and great openness, consumer protection policy and consumer issues have moved forward. The Consumer Markets Scoreboard is also of Mrs Kuneva’s doing.
Despite the concern regarding responsibility for consumer issues being shared by two Commissioners, we hope that this work will continue to make progress and bear fruit and that the focus on consumers will not be weakened as a result of the new Commission. This responsibility is, in fact, now even greater, since Article 12 of the Treaty of Lisbon states that consideration is to be given to consumer protection requirements in the drawing up and implementation of the Union’s other policies and activities. This is an important step for consumers and something that I do not intend to allow anyone to forget in my continued political work.
I very much welcome the second edition of the Consumer Markets Scoreboard. The scoreboard is one of a number of instruments that we have to improve the internal market and I think the perspective on which the scoreboard is based is of particular interest, since it concerns citizens’ expectations and problems and because it improves the internal market specifically for consumers. The scoreboard has analysed the consumer market according to the same indicators as previously – namely price, switching supplier, safety, complaints and customer satisfaction.
Eventually, these will no doubt need to be developed and improved, and new indicators will also need to be included. However, I feel that at present, they provide an adequate basis for establishing priorities and drawing conclusions concerning the further analyses that need to be carried out. It is incredibly important that we are patient and give the scoreboard time to develop. It is still in its infancy.
In the second Consumer Markets Scoreboard, we have seen, among other things, clear indications that consumers have more problems with services than with goods, and that prices increase less often in sectors in which consumers frequently switch supplier. Cross-border e-commerce is also developing more slowly because of border obstacles that leave consumers concerned and lacking in confidence. Moreover, we can see that effective application of the legislation and actual redress mechanisms are of crucial importance for the proper operation of the market.
Data also shows that there are great differences between Member States and that there is room for improvement in respect of redress mechanisms. I therefore call on the Commission to follow up the Green Paper on Consumer Collective Redress.
Effective application and surveillance of the EU’s provisions on consumer protection are essential if we are to increase consumer confidence. However, surveillance in the EU is far from uniform and, according to the statistics, there are significant differences between Member States in terms of market surveillance budgets and the number of working inspectors. Both the Commission and the national surveillance authorities must therefore increase their efforts if we are to achieve the aim of bringing about good consumer protection and ensuring that consumers feel sufficiently confident to be able to exploit all the opportunities offered by the internal market.
It is highly important that we strengthen the mechanisms for market surveillance and supervision in order to increase consumer confidence. Consumption will, after all, be a crucial factor in Europe’s economic recovery."@en1
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