Last week the Internal Market Committee of the European Parliament announced its doubts as to the sufficiency of the budget proposed for the 2014-2020 Consumer Programme. So far, 197 million euro was budgeted for proposed developments, mainly as far as safety, consumer information and education, redress and enforcement of consumer rights are concerned. While the Internal Market approves the main lines of the Consumer Programme and agrees to further, informal negotiations thereof with the Council, it would reshuffle certain priorities. For example, MEPs considered as very important the role of European consumer organisations in assisting and informing consumers, and therefore would grant them more funds than planned. Additionally, they proposed to finance an online portal for consumer organisations, which would lead to better cooperation and information flow among them. Another project that could be funded would be price comparison websites and certification labels for them. (Funding for the next EU Consumer Programme is inadequate, say MEPs)
