COUNCIL RESOLUTION

of 28 June 1999

on Community consumer policy 1999 to 2001

(1999/C 206/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Commission communication on the consumer policy action plan 1999 to 2001,

Whereas:

(1) the Community, in order to ensure a high level of consumer protection and to promote the interests of consumers, shall contribute to protecting the health, safety and economic interests of consumers as well as to promoting their right to information, education and to organise themselves in order to safeguard their interests;

(2) consumer protection requirements shall be taken into account in defining and implementing other Community policies and activities; whereas the interdependence between these other policies and activities and consumer policy initiatives is growing as is the inter-relationship between consumer interests and those of other stakeholders of the society;

(3) the past achievements of Commmunity consumer policy include both important legislation as well as political orientations adopted by the Council which have contributed substantially to a high level of consumer protection and to the promotion of the economic and legal interests of consumers;

(4) Decision No 283/1999/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 January 1999 establishing a general framework for Community activities in favour of consumers(1) states in the preamble that it is necessary to evaluate past achievements and draw up a policy priority programme to implement this general framework, including an action plan and calls in Article 3 for consistency of and complementarity between the Community activities and projects under this general framework and the other Community programmes and initiatives, such as the consumer policy action plan 1999 to 2001;

(5) the Vienna European Council on 11 and 12 December 1998 stated in its conclusions on the internal market that consumer protection should be one of the future priorities of the Council;

(6) Community consumer policy has to respect the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality in accordance with Article 5 of the Treaty establishing the European Community; whereas the consumer policy of the Community should support and supplement the policy pursued by the Member States, and Member States may adopt or maintain in force more stringent provisions - which must be compatible with the Treaty - to ensure a higher level of consumer protection;

(7) the choice of measures to be taken at Community level to safeguard or establish the required high level of consumer protection should be based on the analysis of, in particular, the objectives to be achieved, the nature and scope of the issues to be covered, the potential costs and benefits of action or lack of action and the developments on the market in order to make the best choice between the different legislative and non-legislative solutions;

(8) under certain circumstances self-regulation by business or voluntary agreements between consumer organisations and business can be an appropriate complement or, in specific cases, ann alternative to legislation in particular as they allow for faster reactions to market developments; whereas such self-regulation and agreements must meet the objective of a high level of consumer protection, safeguard consumers' rights to information and not restrict competition; whereas the proper enforcement and monitoring of self-regulation and voluntary agreements are essential for their effectiveness and whereas failure of self-regulation and voluntary agreements may require th adoption of binding rules;

(9) with regard to food safety, the Council's consumer policy should continue to be guided by the Declaration by the Luxembourg European Council of 12 and 13 December 1997, inter alia as regards the completion of certain aspects of Community legislation, its simplification, the need to cover effectively and coherently the entire chain of food production and the optimisation of Member States' controls and strengthening of their coordination with the Commission;

(10) the development of European standards can be of great benefit for consumers, in particular with regard to their health and safety; whereas it is generally agreed that consumer representatives should be more closely involved in the standardisation process and have sufficient access to the necessary expertise in order to play their full part in this process;

(11) the globalisation of markets, the rapidly increasing complexity of goods and services and manufacturing processes and the rapid spread of information and communication technologies provide clear benefits to the consumer, but also pose potential risks and therefore present challenges for Community consumer policy and its implementation and enforcement;

(12) these developments require even better cooperation and coordination between Member States and the Commission and a more dynamic role for the Community in defending the interests of the European consumer in relevant international fora,

I. WELCOMES the Commission action plan 1999 to 2001 and the analysis and proposed action contained therein.

II. CALLS UPON THE COMMISSION:

1. - to implement its action plan 1999 to 2001 whilst taking account of Decision No 283/1999/EC, and in particular Article 3 calling for consistency of and complementarity between the different Community activities, projects, programmes and initiatives, as well as of the relevant political orientations adopted by the Council,

- to put a specific emphasis on the following issues:

Health and safety; economic and legal interests

2. to pay particular attention to the review of the Directive on the general safety of products and to the related analysis of the safety of services as well as to the follow-up to the Commission's green paper on the general principles of food law in the European Union and prepare and submit a proposal for a horizontal framework Directive on food law;

3. to be in the future even more determined to be guided by the precautionary principle in preparing proposals for legislation and in its other consumer-related activities and develop as a priority clear and effective guidelines for the application of this principle;

4. to continue its active policy aiming at the maintenance of market transparency and market balance in the interests of the consumer, in particular in the area of the information society, electronic commerce, distance selling, financial services and the opening to competition of public utilities; continue as part of this policy to work on the protection of the legal interests of consumers including in particular their easy access to redress procedures taking into account point I(3) of Council Resolution of 19. January 1999 on the Consumer Dimension of the Information Society(2);

5. to review in this context existing Community consumer protection legislation and propose new provisions where necessary;

6. to take account in this context, where appropriate, of particularly vulnerable consumer groups;

A more powerful voice for the consumer

7. to contribute to the strengthening of consumer organisations at European and national level, inter alia, by disseminating best practice and by reinforcing the role of the consumer representatives at Community level;

8. to examine on which issues and under which circumstances the dialogue between consumer organisations and business should be encouraged; promote, where appropriate, voluntary agreements between them and keep Member States informed thereof;

9. to contribute to improving the effectiveness of the involvement of consumer representatives in the standardisation process;

Integration

10. to ensure that consumer protection requirements are fully understood and are taken into account in the definition and implementation of other Community policies, such as the development of sustainable consumption patterns, as well as in any review of consumer-related legislation, in order to develop a coherent and comprehensive consumer policy;

International relations

11. to take greater account in international bilateral and multilateral trade relations of consumer policy requirements with regard to consumers' economic and legal interests and particularly consumers' health and safety;

12. to ensure that consumer policy requirements are addressed in the enlargement process.

III. CALLS UPON THE COMMISSION AND THE MEMBER STATES

13. to further develop their dialogue on consumer policy with the aim of enhancing the effectiveness of consumer policy measures they take by, where appropriate, coordinating the main lines of the national consumer policies and/or the specific activities of those policies.

14. to continue improving the development and enforcement of Community legislation in particular through better administrative cooperation and coordination with and between the authorities of the Member States responsible for the development and enforcement of consumer legislation, including for example cooperation in research, information, risk assessment and market surveillance.

IV. CALLS UPON THE MEMBER STATES

15. to ensure, as appropriate, also at national level that consumer protection requirements are taken into account in other relevant policies;

16. to strengthen, by appropriate means, national consumer organisations and improve their consultation at national level;

17. to contribute to enabling the effective participation of consumer representatives in the standardisation process.

V. REAFFIRMS its intention to further develop an active consumer policy at Community level along the lines referred to above, to take account also of consumer policy requirements in its decisions on other Community policies and AGREES to assess on a regular basis the progress made in the follow-up to this Resolution.

(1) OJ L 34, 9.2.1999, p. 1.

(2) OJ C 23, 28.1.1999, p. 1.