Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-11-17-Speech-1-210"
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"en.20081117.26.1-210"2
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"Mr President, the Scoreboard initiative came into existence less than a year ago and during that time the Commission has greatly appreciated Parliament’s interest and support.
The Scoreboard has been the subject of many debates in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and we have learnt a lot from these debates and from the suggestions made. Thank you very much for all that, but especially thanks to Ms Anna Hedh for the excellent report.
Let me reiterate briefly why the Consumer Market Scoreboard is so important for all of us. If we are to deliver to consumers, we need to be more responsive to their expectations and better understand the problems they are facing in their day-to-day lives. To do so, we need an evidence base that shows how markets perform in terms of economic and social outcomes for consumers, and how consumers behave on the market. Sound policy-making requires accurate data, and we fully share your view on this.
The Scoreboard brings together evidence to identify markets that risk not delivering well for consumers and therefore need further attention. It also allows progress in retail market integration to be tracked, and helps to benchmark the consumer environment in Member States, particularly in terms of compliance with consumer legislation, enforcement, redress, and consumer empowerment. We share your views on which indicators to include in this Scoreboard, and we believe that the establishment of a harmonised EU-wide database of consumer complaints will be an essential step forward. It will allow us to detect problems in consumer markets at an early stage and, if necessary, to take appropriate action.
The Commission firmly believes that it is important to include price data, since prices are one of consumers’ principal concerns. The current political and economic climate further reinforces the need for good price data. We need to send a clear signal to our consumers that we are keeping an eye on how prices compare across the internal market. The Commission can assure you that it is fully aware of the complexity of this issue, and will of course interpret this data carefully and make sure the data are put in the right context. Prices may diverge across the internal market for sound economic reasons, but also because of market malfunctioning, and our aim is to find ways to tell the difference.
We share Ms Hedh’s view on the importance of close cooperation with Member States. This year, the Commission started to work together with national policy-makers, statistical offices, enforcement authorities and consumer organisations to further develop the Scoreboard indicators, and we will continue with this cooperation in the coming years. Ms Hedh has stressed that we should make this Scoreboard more accessible to a larger public and that we should raise awareness. The Commission accepts this point, and will step up efforts to do so. I invite you to see the results in the second edition of the Scoreboard.
Finally, what the Commission wishes to take from Ms Hedh’s report – although I could quote many other points if I had more time – is the wish for more empowerment indicators such as literacy and skills. Within the framework of Eurostat’s revised European Social Survey Programme, the Commission plans to run a module on consumer empowerment through which it wants to measure consumer skills, consumer information and awareness of rights and assertiveness. This would allow us to start drawing up a statistical snapshot of Europe’s citizens in their capacity as consumers. We see this as the main subject of the pilot project proposed by the Parliament for 2009. Let me conclude by again thanking Ms Hedh for the interest and support, not least in financial terms."@en1
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