European Economic and Social Committee

PRESS RELEASE No 19/2006 / 8 March 2006

Austrian presidency initiative

European Consumer Day 2006

Consumer Education

Wednesday, 15 March 2006, beginning at 9 a.m.

Urania – Dachsaal room
Uraniastrasse 1, 1010 Vienna (Austria)

The 8th European Consumer Day, organised by the Austrian presidency in collaboration with the European Economic and Social Committee, will take place in Viennaon 15 March 2006.

The day’s proceedings will be opened by Ursula Haubner, Austrian Federal Minister for Social Security, Generations and Consumer Protection, and Ms Anne-Marie Sigmund, President of the European Economic and Social Committee, and will focus this year on consumer education.

The aim of this event is to identify best practice in the field of consumer education and to map out suitable measures for the coming years.

Consumer Day will take the form of a dialogue between stakeholders drawn from the EU institutions, national and local authorities and representatives of civil society and the following aspects of consumer education will be discussed:

  • past initiatives
  • current measures
  • non-governmental organisations
  • future challenges.

Background note:

The choice of date marks US President John F. Kennedy's declaration to the US Congress on 15 March 1962, when he spoke in support of consumers and spelled out four fundamental consumer rights:

  • the right to safety
  • the right to be informed
  • the right to choose
  • the right to be heard.

A number of years later, the United Nations decided that 15 March of each year would be a special consumer rights day across the world. European Consumer Day (ECD) was launched on 15 March 1999 at the EESC's initiative, with the aim of making the public more aware of EU consumer policy and informing people of the on-going work in this area. Since then a range of issues affecting consumers, from consumer safety to consumer confidence in e-commerce, has been addressed each year.

Further information on the conference programme is available on our website, in English, French, and German:

For more details, please contact:

Karel Govaert or Christian Weger at the EESC Press Office,

99 rue Belliard, B-1040; Brussels

Tel.: 02 546 9396/9586; Mobile: 0475 753 202

Email:

Website:

The European Economic and Social Committee represents the various economic and social components of organised civil society. It is an institutional consultative body established by the 1957 Treaty of Rome. Its consultative role enables its members, and hence the organisations they represent, to participate in the Community decision-making process. Following enlargement, the Committee now has 317 members, who are appointed by the Council of Ministers for a four-year term.