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Monthly Newsletter edited by Cittadinanzattiva-Active Citizenship Network
Civic Activism | Patients' Rights | Consumers' Rights | Support ACN
Year 6th, number 61 - August-September 2018
SPECIAL EDITION ON CONSUMER ISSUES
Highlight


A New Deal for Consumers: Commission strengthens EU consumers’ rights and enforcement
The European Commission is proposing a New Deal for Consumers to ensure that all the European consumers fully benefit from their rights under the Union law.
While the EU already has some of the strongest rules on consumer protection in the world, recent cases like the Dieselgate scandal have shown that it is difficult to enforce them fully in practice. The New Deal for Consumers will empower qualified entities to launch representative actions on behalf of consumers and introduce stronger sanctioning powers for Member States' consumer authorities. It will also extend consumers' protection when they are online and clarify how EU law to clarify that dual quality practices misleading consumers are prohibited. Read more

Focus

ECCG opinion on the New Deal for Consumers
The European Consumer Consultative Group (ECCG) very much welcomes the Commission’s New Deal for Consumers, which consists of a proposal for a directive on representative actions and a proposal for a directive to amend four essential consumer law directives.
The ECCG is the Commission's main forum to consult with national and European consumer organizations. Download the draft opinion.

For more information:

News
Consumers' Rights

Cittadinanzattiva at the 10th Citizens' Energy Forum
Last 20-21 September in Dublin, invited by EU Commission, Cittadinanzattiva attended the 10th Citizens' Energy Forum. This year's edition focused on the role of consumers in the energy market in the context of the measures proposed by the Clean Energy for all Europeans package and the recently adopted New Deal for Consumers package.
In the session “Energy start-ups: What new value for consumers?” it was also illustrated the experience of EU project Citizenergy, the European platform for citizen investment in renewable energy, in which was involve also the EU branch of Cittadinanzattiva, Active Citizenship Network. To know more about this initiative click here.


Tiziana Toto, Responsible Energy policies, Cittadinanzattiva

Italy: citizens and companies for energy sustainability
Last 28th June, in the framework of the EU Sustainable Energy Week, Cittadinanzattiva realized in Rome an Italian Energy Day, presenting our research called “SI(e)NERGIA: cittadini e imprese per la sostenibilità energetica” ("SI(e)NERGY: citizens and companies for energy sustainability"), focused on better understand the level of awareness and engagement of citizens for energy sustainability, compared with the perception and the point of view of the main companies active in Italy on the topic. Here you can find the main figures and data, more details about the project, the programme of the event and the media coverage (IT language). 

For more information:

New Commission Study on pre-contractual information and billing
The Study analyses minimum requirements and options for standardization of energy offers and bills to ensure increased clarity and comparability and proposes some alternative “bill designs” to achieve this goal. The study also examines the main factors, discouraging energy consumers from switching, with a focus on the impact of exit fees on their decision. Covering all EU Member States plus Iceland and Norway, the study was carried out between December 2016 and March 2018 and includes a consumer survey focusing on consumers’ experiences with electricity and gas suppliers, a behavioral experiment testing different ways of presenting pre-contractual information and bill formats, as well as a review of a sample of energy Price Comparison Tools. To know more, click here

Evaluation of the Consumer Credit Directive ongoing
Last 4th July the EU Commission published the Roadmap for the Evaluation of Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreements for consumers on its Better Regulation Portal. After this first stage of the process, closed on 27th July 2018, will follow by a more in-depth consultations, including through the launch of an online public consultation towards the end of the year as well as targeted interviews with the relevant stakeholders. To know more click the Roadmap.

Public consultation on the stocktaking of the Commission's “better regulation” approach
All citizens, organizations and public authorities with an interest or experience in EU policy-making are welcome to contribute to this public consultation. Contributions are also sought from parties with specific experience in better regulation tools such as impact assessment, stakeholder consultation, and evaluation.
The purpose of that consultation is to identify strengths and weaknesses of the current system and highlight areas for improvement. The public consultation can be reached on this click.

Cittadinanzattiva-Active Citizenship Network in the CropBooster Stakeholder Group
It will start in November the new H2020 project titled “Preparatory action to Boost Global Crop Yield for Food & Nutrition Security and to Fuel a Bioeconomy [CropBooster-P]”, under the Sustainable Food Security call “Future proofing our plants”. Cittadinanzattiva-Active Citizenship Network as well European Consumer Union (ECU) has been officially involved in the CropBooster Stakeholder Group which first meeting is planned for the next March 2019.

EU Mobility week 2018, the commitment of Cittadinanzattiva
Also this year Cittadinanzattiva took part in the European Mobility Week, now in its 17th edition, with meetings and awareness initiatives in several Italian cities.
This year's theme is multimodality with the slogan "mix and move" and the aim of underlining how important it is to rethink everyone's habits in terms of mobility, preferring the use of less polluting vehicles that can integrate or replace cars.
To know more click here and watch the video (IT language)

For more information:

Events

4 October 2018, Rome (Italy): Consumer Dialogue in Italy
The National Consumer Dialogues support the 'New Deal for Consumers' package, announced by President Junker in his 2017 SOTEU speech and elaborated in the letter of intent of 13 September 2017. A Dialogue will be held in every Member State.
The Dialogues will be a platform where stakeholders from the civil society, such as consumer and business organizations together with government representatives and other national authorities and citizens can speak about their views on consumer issues in the EU and the Commission will listen to what they expect EU Consumer policy to deliver and to improve. The purpose of the Dialogues is twofold: to listen to stakeholder and citizens' expectations while having an opportunity to explain the new package on consumer protection outside the ''Brussels Bubble''. In Italy, the event will be held in Rome on next October 4th and hosted by the Ministry of Economic Development.

4-5 October 2018, Paris (France): European Consumer Union (ECU) General Assembly
The European Consumers Union (ECU) is a European consumer organization, which complies with all of the conditions established by EU Institutions. Founded in 2009, ECU is now composed by 25 National Consumer Associations coming from 17 EU Member States plus 1 extra Member EU. Cittadinanzattiva is involved with a relevant role in order to strengthen the citizens’ perspective in the consumer matters at EU level.
The meeting will be hosted by the French member of ECU, the consumer association INDECOSA, and it will be attended by the EU Commission.

8-10 October 2018, Athens (Greece): STAR-ProBio project, a mid-term General Assembly
As a member of the External Advisory Board Members of the STAR-ProBio EU project, Cittadinanzattiva has been invited to discuss the project results. The meeting will be held during the mid-term General Assembly, scheduled in Athens (8-10 October). Sustainability Transition Assessment and Research of Bio-based Products is a multi-actor collaborative Research and Innovation Action coordinated by Unitelma Sapienza University.  To know more about the project, click here.

10 October 2018, Brussels (Belgium): Scientific Research and Innovation,The Future of Hygiene
MEP Alojz Peterle will host this workshop to discuss the future of the healthcare sector in Europe, and how hygiene should be immediately improved inside hospitals.
The traditional methods of sanitation have shown their limits in controlling pathogenic contamination, therefore effective prevention, as well as sustainable and effective alternatives are needed urgently, to save citizens’ lives and protect healthcare budgets. In this occasion will be presented evidences from Italy's new multi-center SAN ICA study. Active Citizenship Network (ACN) will take part in the debate. To confirm your participation, register here.

10 October 2018, Brussels (Belgium): Debt Advice Stakeholder Forum
The level of households’ over-indebtedness in Europe is still significant, despite the recent recovery of the European economy. This persisting problem has important consequences of both economic and social nature. Therefore, the European Commission, in its “Financial services Action Plan: Better Products More Choice" has decided to devote a specific effort for the area of households’ over-indebtedness. In this context, evidence from various sources shows that debt-advice can play a key role to address this complex issue. Currently, however, debt advice in Europe is fragmented and provided through different tools, which may vary a lot depending on countries and providers. With the goal of acquiring a better understanding of debt advice functioning and impact in the EU, the Commission will organize a one-day “Debt Advice Stakeholder Forum” on 10 October 2018 in Brussels.

6 November 2018, Brussels (Belgium):  European training seminar on vaccination
Active Citizenship Network (ACN) will organize an European training seminar on the theme of life-course vaccination opened to at least 20 selected leaders of civic, consumer and patient associations coming from different countries. The reason is to respond to the need to be more up-to-date and prepared in the face of a phenomenon (the decrease in vaccination coverage) that has returned to topical relevance; to better identify, recognize and struggle the increased external factors that can negatively influence the vaccine policy in EU Member States and have updated information & knowing how to recognize official sources of information. To know more, click here.

12-15 November 2018, Brussels (Belgium):  International Product Safety Week 2018
The next edition of the International Product Safety Week will take place on 12-15 November 2018 in Brussels. The agenda will include 3 half-day ICPHSO (International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization) symposium, a stakeholder meeting on exchange of best practices on market surveillance, 2 conferences on topical subjects to be announced and a seminar organized in cooperation with OECD. To stay tuned please check also the dedicated webpage of the EU events' calendar here.

28 November 2018,Brussels (Belgium): Consumer Summit 2018
The annual appointment organized by the EU Commission will take place in Brussels and focused on the 'New Deal for Consumers' package.

 


Director and Editor in chief: Mariano Votta
Editors: Daniela Quaggia
Coordination and Production: Giacomo D'Orazio 

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