Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-12-Speech-2-337"
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"en.20061212.44.2-337"2
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"Madam President, the research that the Parliament Member referred to does confirm the Commission's opinion that a lot of things need to be done to improve consumer confidence in the internal market. However, if we consider where we started, where we begun, and where we are today, we should not adopt such a completely negative view.
The progress has been significant and we can witness it through the measures we have taken and implemented over the past years. However, the Commission does not rest and continues to act in the direction of boosting consumer confidence, but the Member States have also an important role to play. Despite low confidence, which is due to several factors, one of the most important ones is the lack of a harmonised consumer protection system; this means that consumers do not know what to expect when they go shopping outside the country’s borders. However they must acknowledge that a lot of things have been achieved during the past years in the direction of solving these problems. Moreover, it is clear that a lot more needs to be done to increase consumer confidence, especially with respect to the existing legislation and its implementation. Both the measures that have been taken as well as those that are being planned are intended for dealing with the increasing number of unfair or illegal practices.
Has anything been done at European Union level? First of all let me reassure you that the Commission has never ignored any complaint that it has received or continues to receive through its networks. On the contrary, in the past such complaints have made things happen, for example the approval of the legislation against unfair trade practices. Moreover, they play an important part in the data and information base for future actions, for example for time-sharing. With the legislation on time-sharing we will cover travel products that are not covered by law and therefore do not provide an acceptable level of consumer protection.
The other legislation I mentioned, namely directive 2005/29 on unfair trade practices, prohibits aggressive practices such as sale under pressure, misleading market promotion methods and unfair advertising. European Union consumers are protected equally whether shopping in their own country or in other Member States or over the Internet; moreover the horizontal nature of this protection will allow it to control new practices that will arise as the market develops.
Apart from that, directive 2000/31 on electronic commerce has imposed information requirements with the purpose of guaranteeing total consumer information regarding the trader’s identity with respect to the commercial nature of communication over the Internet, actual price and technical means.
Regulation 2006/2004 on cooperation regarding consumer protection will allow national competent authorities to take swift action for dealing with ruthless and unfair cross-border traders, wherever they might be in the European Union.
In the proposal for a regulation regarding the law that will be applied in the agreements that is ‘Rome I Regulation’, the Commission’s proposal will significantly increase consumer confidence bearing the benefit of a legislation with which they are already familiar. Moreover, we have the European Consumer Centre networks or Economic Conflict Resolution Networks that will inform consumers on their rights and assist them in guaranteeing their rights through court appeals or out-of-court settlements in cross-border cases.
As Parliament is aware, in the future the Commission will proceed to review the legislation on consumer protection. Quite soon a Green Paper will be approved for wider public consultation. Its goal is to find a way to modernise and improve existing legislation with the purpose of increasing consumer and enterprise confidence so that they can buy and sell within the borders of the internal market. Moreover, the issue of consumer protection will be examined within the context of the upcoming strategy on consumer policy.
As you can see, on the one hand our investigations do indicate that there are still serious problems but on the other, I believe you understand that the Commission does not rest or remain passive. On the contrary, it is taking steps which are part of a complete programme for dealing with the drawbacks that have been noted by the investigation."@en1
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