European Union News - Consumers

The European Commission has approved a contribution of €35,97 million to the total budget of the 22 programmes to promote agricultural products in the European Union and in third countries. The third countries/regions targeted are: Russia, China, North America, South-East Asia, Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine, India and South-Korea.

The European Commission adopted a Green Paper that opens a public consultation to explore what this Internet on TV and TV on Internet convergence of technology and content could mean for Europe's economic growth and innovation, cultural diversity, and consumers. In particular, the Green Paper asks whether the current approach will also be appropriate in the future.

The European Commission published the EU-wide test results for horsemeat DNA and phenylbutazone made in the wake of the horsemeat scandal. The results have revealed that less than 5% of the tested products had horse DNA and that about 0.5% of the equine carcasses tested were found to be contaminated with bute.

Rating different products and production processes in terms of their environmental performance is currently quite a complex process. The existence of different methods either promoted by public authorities or put forward by private operators forces companies to choose between these options, increasing their costs and making it more difficult for consumers to access reliable and comparable information.

Eurostat published that in February 2013 compared with January 2013, the volume of retail trade fell by 0.3% in the euro area and remained stable in the EU. The largest decreases were registered in Estonia (-2.6%), France (-2.2%) and Slovenia (-2.0%), and the highest increases in Luxembourg (+4.1%), Denmark and Malta (both +1.5%).

The European Commission has launched a public consultation that seeks opinions on how to improve access to justice for consumers and small businesses in small-scale cross-border disputes. With this consultation, the Commission intends to improve confidence in cross-border shopping, helping consumers and businesses make full use of Europe’s Single Market.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) stressed at the European Consumer Day celebrated on 14 March 2013, that increased consumer confidence and empowerment can help boost the Single Market. It also underlined that there can be no compromise on consumer product safety.

The European Commission presented a new strategy to fight against aggressive commercial practices across the EU to step up enforcement of the rules to increase citizens' trust when shopping in Europe’s internal market.

The European Commission is ready with a proposed mandate for the future negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement with the United States. The draft mandate will now be sent to the Council for the Member States to approve it before negotiations can start.

The European Parliament voted in plenary session its position for negotiations with EU member states on the CAP reform. This will be the first EU farm policy reform shaped by Parliament as a full co-legislator with EU member states. Among other things, the Parliament voted in favour of the publication of beneficiaries of EU agricultural funding and inserted a list of land-owners.

The Directive that obliges public authorities to pay for goods and services within 30 calendar days or, in very exceptional circumstances, within 60 days, has to be integrated into member states national law by 16th March 2013. In particular, the Directive intends to end late payments.

The European Parliament has approved new EU legislation that will allow European consumers to access faster and cheaper ways to solve their disputes concerning the goods and services traded within the single market. These new rules aim to avoid customers the need to engage in long and costly legal procedures which are particularly cumbersome in cross-border or on-line shopping.