Debate: Towards a New Consumer Agenda beyond
Date: MONDAY, 23 NOVEMBER 2020
Speaker: Didier Reynders
Language: FR

Comme je l’ai mentionné au début de notre débat, votre rôle dans l’élaboration des priorités et des actions présentées dans cet agenda est primordial et je voudrais revenir sur un certain nombre d’aspects en saluant d’abord le fait que vous vous penchez non seulement sur la politique que nous pourrions mener à l’intérieur de l’Union européenne, mais aussi sur la façon de poursuivre cette politique dans des accords internationaux, je pense notamment aux accords de commerce. Un certain nombre de politiques devront effectivement être utilisées pour atteindre nos objectifs et pas seulement spécifiquement la politique du consommateur dans l’Union européenne. Il y a d’autres cadres bien entendu à utiliser de la même manière. Maintenant, je voudrais, comme je le disais, revenir sur quelques questions évoquées. EU harmonisation has brought solid progress for consumer policy. Many EU consumer laws follow this approach, such as the Directive on pre—contractual information and rights of withdrawal for online contracts. However, when proposing new legislation we need to carefully consider the level of protection in the different Member States. Sometimes minimum harmonisation is chosen so that Member States have a possibility to go beyond common EU requirements in certain areas. Therefore, the Commission will decide on the level of harmonisation of its proposal on a case-by-case basis.  We need to work on concrete enforcement of the rights enshrined in EU law for consumers, and for protection of consumers. For example, the Commission opened 11 infringement proceedings against Member States that adopted national measures contrary to the Package Travel Directive during the pandemic.  Four proceedings are still open, and in addition I wrote on 30 October to 10 Member States that are now back in compliance with EU rules but that had adopted national legislation contrary to the Package Travel Directive. I urged them to take measures to remedy the situation created by their past legislation that ran contrary to Union law and to make sure that consumers effectively get their rights in accordance with the Package Travel Directive.  I also reminded them of the primacy of EU law and some will continue to work, to organise, of course, protection of consumers, but more than that, to go to real enforcement of consumer rights. And we will pay attention to some categories of consumers, vulnerable ones like children, but we will also pay attention to other kinds of people – I’m thinking about people having difficulties to use digital tools, like people with disabilities. For them, we need to organise better accessibility.  The Geo-blocking Regulation was adopted in 2018. As explained in the Consumer Agenda, the Commission is evaluating its impact and will publish a report. This report will include an assessment of the possible application of new rules to certain electronically supplied services which offer copyright protected content, such as music, e-books, software and online games, as well as of services in sectors such as transport and audiovisual.  The Commission is of course strongly committed to addressing all kinds of unfair commercial practices, including practices suggesting to consumers that goods have the same composition and characteristics when this is not the case. In this context, the Commission will continue to work with the Member States and their competent authorities in order to ensure correct and timely transposition of the new rules in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. These rules have been introduced by the Better Enforcement and Modernisation Directive that will apply across the EU from May 2022.  Moreover, as dual-quality cases are cross-border cases by nature, the Commission will facilitate and support the work of the competent authorities of the Member States under the new Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Regulation.  As announced in the Agenda, the Commission will come with further concrete proposals in the following months and years, and in the second quarter of the next year three legislative proposals will be put on the table: an initiative to empower consumers in the green transition, a review of the Consumer Credit Directive and a review of the General Product Safety Directive. So I’m looking forward to working further with you in the preparation and follow-up of these proposals.  Our goal is to build a real trust in consumers in the good functioning of the internal market and in the safety and sustainability of all the products proposed in the EU, offline and online, and of course, I’m sure that we will work together to build such a trust inside the European Union. So thank you again for this opportunity to present to you the Consumer Agenda. Thank you for your attention, and thank you for your proposals.