Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

16 February 2010
by Ina Dimireva -- last modified 17 February 2010

Responsibilities, contacts and latest studies of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Committee responsible for:

1. coordination at Union level of national legislation in the sphere of the internal market and for the customs union, in particular:

(a) the free movement of goods including the harmonisation of technical standards,
(b) the right of establishment,
(c) the freedom to provide services except in the financial and postal sectors;

2. measures aiming at the identification and removal of potential obstacles to the functioning of the internal market;
3. the promotion and protection of the economic interests of consumers, except for public health and food safety issues, in the context of the establishment of the internal market.

Meeting Documents

Contact

E-mail: ip-imco@europarl.europa.eu
Fax: +32 2 283 12 72 (Brussels)
Fax: +33 3 88 17 45 38 (Strassbourg)

Latest Studies of the Committee

Study on Labelling of Textile Products

The debate on textile labelling was spurred by a recent proposal for a Regulation on textile names and related labelling of textile products. This study investigates whether other textile labelling requirements could be brought up in EU legislation, including care instructions, chemical substances in textiles, electronic labelling (RFID), multi-lingual, country of origin, ecological, and size labelling. Generally, the consumer organisations do not follow the area of textile labelling very closely, with the exception of chemical labelling, because improper textile labelling does, in most cases, not present a risk to consumers’ health. However, consumer organisations generally favour harmonised, mandatory systems in order to ensure that consumers meet the same information across the EU. Industry organisations are generally in favour of voluntary systems, primarily due to the costs associated with mandatory system(s). For the member states, any mandatory labelling system would increase requirements for market surveillance.

Full Report

Internal Market beyond the EU: EEA and Switzerland

This briefing paper looks at the functioning of the extended Internal Market and examines two models of integration: the economic integration of the EU and Switzerland via sectoral bilateral agreements and the EEA agreement that governs relations between EU and the EEA states, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. The paper identifies challenges related to the agreements and points to ways to enhance the performance of the extended Internal Market.

Full Report

Source: European Parliament