The informal ministerial meeting on consumer affairs and industry and the internal market takes place at the Euskalduna Conference Centre in Bilbao on 24-25 July.
The working sessions of the ministers for consumer affairs focus on boosting sustainable consumption and the New Consumer Agenda 2020–2025, and will analyse and establish lines of work to increase consumer empowerment in the green transition. Meanwhile, the ministers for industry and the internal market address Open Strategic Self-Government.
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On 24 and 25 July, the informal ministerial meeting on consumer affairs and industry and the internal market will take place at the Euskalduna Conference Centre in Bilbao.
The working sessions of the ministers for consumer affairs will focus on boosting sustainable consumption and the New Consumer Agenda 2020–2025, and will analyse and establish lines of work to increase consumer empowerment in the green transition.
The ministers for industry and the internal market will address one of the cornerstones of the EU: Open Strategic Autonomy, an opportunity for industrial development and a new impetus for the internal market.
In defence of consumer rights
The New Consumer Agenda, adopted by the European Commission on 13 November 2020, set out a strategic framework and presented a vision for EU consumer policy, focusing on five key priority areas:
- Empowering consumers to play an active role in the green transition
- The digital transformation challenge (ensuring that consumers are as safe online as they are offline)
- The effective guarantee and defence of consumers’ full rights
- The roll out of policies aimed at protecting vulnerable consumers
- International cooperation and high-level consumer protection in the global context
Work in this area is under way: of the 22 actions planned, 15 have already been carried out and six are ongoing. The final one is expected to start later this year.
In line with the New Consumer Agenda and the desire to strengthen the role of citizens, one of the points to be discussed at the ministerial meeting will be improving – in terms of access and reliability – information that consumers receive on the environmental sustainability characteristics of products, with a particular focus on protecting citizens from practices such as so-called greenwashing and premature obsolescence.
With the New Consumer Agenda post-2025 on the horizon, and vis-à-vis the worsening climate crisis, sustainability will remain one of the EU´s top priorities and a pillar of this consumer rights agenda.
Towards more sustainable consumption
According to the results of a recent Eurobarometer survey, more than 72% of respondents believe they should do more than they are currently doing to contribute to the green transition and tackle climate change. Of the respondents to the Consumer Conditions Survey 2023, some 56% said that environmental considerations had influenced them in at least one or two product or service purchases they had made in the last two weeks.
A key focus of the meeting will be to promote an in-depth discussion on the way towards encouraging sustainable consumption in the digital age, in particular on how digitalisation can further support sustainability from a consumer perspective.
For industry, the EU will promote voluntary commitments by companies to sustainable consumption beyond legal obligations, as well as the repair of goods, encouraging the purchase of more sustainable and circular products.
Commitment to Open Strategic Autonomy in industry
For a long time, the concept of Open Strategic Autonomy was primarily linked to security and defence. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia´s attack on Ukraine have accelerated reflection and action at European level on the need for strategic autonomy in other key areas, the risks of asymmetric dependencies in strategic sectors having been revealed.
Industry is central to Europe´s progress and future prosperity: it accounts for more than 20% of the EU economy and employs some 35 million people. The current global economic uncertainty poses new challenges for European industry as it moves towards the dual green and digital transition.
In this area, Europe´s Open Strategic Autonomy should aim to reduce dependence on others for the most needed products and inputs in key areas such as:
- Critical raw materials
- Strategic technologies
- Food
- Energy
- Infrastructure
- Means of transport
- Security
It is also a strategy that gives European industry the opportunity to develop its own markets, products and services that boost competitiveness.
The ministerial meeting will discuss how to strengthen the internal market to achieve open strategic autonomy in the EU, as well as the short, medium and long-term challenges facing European industry.
In competitiveness, for example, work is under way on dossiers such as the Single Market Emergency Instrument, the Chips Regulation, the Critical Raw Materials Regulation, and the Zero Net Emissions Industry Regulation.
Economic security vis-à-vis geostrategic challenges
The aforementioned increase in geopolitical tensions and heightened geostrategic and geo-economic competition, coupled with the disruptions caused by the pandemic and the war against Ukraine, have also highlighted the risks inherent to certain economic dependencies. These risks may jeopardise the functioning of EU society, its economy, its strategic interests and its capacity to act.
To assess and manage risks while maintaining openness and international engagement, there is a need for a comprehensive strategy, including joint action across the EU´s internal and external policies to strengthen the economic resilience and security of the EU to defend its interests globally while preserving an open economy.
In this regard, the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy adopted a Communication on the European Economic Security Strategy that proposes carrying out a comprehensive assessment of economic security risks in four areas:
- Risks to the resilience of supply chains
- Risks to the physical and cyber security of critical infrastructures
- Risks related to technology security and technology leakage
- Risks of the militarisation of economic dependencies
Mitigating these risks, as outlined in the communication, should take a three-pronged approach:
- Promoting the EU´s competitiveness
- Protecting the EU´seconomic security
- Partnering with allies
At the meeting, ministers will reflect on how to develop a comprehensive strategy using this approach to protect the EU´s economic security from risks that could jeopardise the functioning of EU society, its economy, its strategic interests and its capacity to act.