AFEB, with the European Commissioner for the protection of consumers

On 8 October, Afeb, the Manufacturers Association, DIY, was invited to a ceremony chaired by the European Commissioner for the protection of consumers, Meglena Kuneva, which brought together representatives of different Spanish organisations thus demonstrating their common interest for the consumer.

Natividad Mateos, Afeb Vice-Chairperson, took the opportunity to present both the Association and Fedyima to the Commissioner, as well as to interest the actions being undertaken to protect consumers from unsafe products, mostly from Asia, and the strategies to follow to increase trade on-line. Services such as the Community system of warning from consumer products dangerous 'rapex', development of legislation between Member States on good practices trade, policies of consumer oriented products, services, awareness of the European manufacturers to increase their sense of responsibility ('green economy') and the need to work for the implementation and proper compliance with the laws commonthey were some of the topics covered. Ultimately, medidas measures aimed to ensure that consumers benefit from a single market and receive the treatment and protection that they deserve, increasing their level of confidence.

The European Commissioner said that the EU has signed with China a 'Memorandum of agreement and Business Plan' for the implementation of similar to the European standards, is seeking to strengthen cooperation and exchange of information, making coordinated and simultaneous controls in specific sectors of their markets.

In relation to trade online, it was found that he has evolved a lot in European implementation measures that affect the rights that consumers have when they buy over the Internet, but still must continue working to increase the confidence of European citizens in the electronic commerce and thus increase the number of transactionsbecause consumers are not enjoying all the benefits here which is a single market. However, e-commerce is the channel that greater growth has demonstrated, but we will study measures to simplify the rules of cross-border trade.