Euro Coop welcomes adoption of new European Consumer Agenda

Euro Coop welcomes adoption of new European Consumer Agenda

European consumer co-operatives, which are consumer-owned, democratically-controlled, values-based enterprises, have long recognised European consumers’ key role in achieving a green economy and have developed information and education activities to raise consumers’ awareness about sustainable consumption, echoing the co-operative guiding principle of education. Euro Coop thus strongly supports the European Commission’s pledge to improve consumer information, specifically in the food sector.

Another high point is the European Commission’s commitment to reinforcing safety along the food chain. Consumer co-operatives, which mainly operate in the food retail market, are well placed to know that consumers value food safety and expect long-term guarantees.

Finally, Euro Coop welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to look into the issue of sustainable food while defining concrete actions to address the food waste problem in the food chain.

While in support of this set of ambitious initiatives, Euro Coop regrets the fact that the European Commission has not yet begun to consider the definition of a European collective redress mechanism, which is why this topic does not figure in the Consumer Agenda, and encourages the Commission to address this issue in the coming months.

Euro Coop is comprised of the national organisations of consumer co-operatives in 18 European countries and represents the interests of over 4,500 local and regional co-operatives owned by a total of 30 million consumers across Europe, employing more than 450,000 people and accounting for € 74 billion in annual turnover.