The new European Commission's strategy intends to boost the confidence and growth by putting consumers at the heart of the Single Market. For achieving this objective, the European Consumer Agenda has four main objectives, and it also presents a number of key actions to be implemented between now and 2014.

The European Commission presented the new European Consumer Agenda that aims to maximise consumer participation and trust in the market. For this, it proposes four main objectives which consist in reinforcing consumer safety; enhancing knowledge; stepping up enforcement and securing redress; aligning consumer rights and policies to changes in society and in the economy.

Viviane Reding, Commission Vice-President and the EU's Justice Commissioner considers important this policy because growth in the European Union needs both competitive supply and strong demand. For this reason it proposes among other things to stimulate cross-border shopping online. In June 2011, more consumer protection on shooping online was agreed between the EP and the Council. In addition to this, as a next step, the Commission plans to modernise the EU's package travel rules of 1990 to take into account that more and more people now book their holidays on the web. Ms Reading also stressed that it takes more than new laws to make the digital single market work for consumers.

Therefore, the five key sectors that the Agenda focus are food: to ensure sustainability and safety; energy: so that consumers can get the best value for money in the liberalised market and better manage their energy consumption; financial: to protect consumers' financial interests and give them the tools to manage their finances; transport: to adapt legislation to modern patterns of travel and to support sustainable mobility; and digital: with a view to tackling problems faced by consumers and ensuring their protection online.