The Commission has issued a call for applications for financial support to European consumer organisations in 2009 with the aim of complementing, supporting and watching the policies of the member States, and contributing to protect the health, the security and the economic and legal interests of the consumers.

This call for applications has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union of July 9th, 2009.

The call for applications 'Consumer policy' develops the Community Action in the field of consumer policy. The aim of the Programme shall be to complement, support and monitor the policies of the Member States and to contribute to protecting the health, safety and economic and legal interests of consumers, as well as to promoting their rights to information, to education and to organise themselves in order to safeguard their interests to be done through the following objectives:

1. To ensure a high level of consumer protection, notably through improved evidence, better consultation and better representation of consumers' interests.
2. To ensure the effective application of consumer protection rules, in particular through enforcement cooperation, information, education and redress.

The proposal develops actions 5 and 6 from the Programme:

• Action 5: Financial contributions to the functioning of European consumer organisations.
• Action 6: Financial contributions to the functioning of European consumer organisations representing consumer interests in the development of standards for products and services at Community level.

Each action is granted with a total amount of 1,3 million EUR, and the deadline for submitting the applications is September 4th, 2009.