The European Parliament,

–   having regard to the Communication from the Commission of 29 January 2008 entitled "Monitoring consumer outcomes in the single market: the Consumer Markets Scoreboard" (COM(2008)0031),

–   having regard to the Internal Market Scoreboard no 16 bis of 14 February 2008 (SEC(2008)0076),

–   having regard to its resolution of 6 September 2007 on the Green Paper on the Review of the Consumer Acquis(1),

–   having regard to its resolution of 20 May 2008 on EU consumer policy strategy 2007-2013(2),

–   having regard to its resolution of 23 September 2008 on the Internal Market Scoreboard(3),

–   having regard to the Communication from the Commission of 20 November 2007 entitled "A single market for 21st century Europe" (COM(2007)0724),

–   having regard to the Communication from the Commission of 20 November 2007 entitled "Services of general interest, including social services of general interest: a new European commitment" (COM(2007)0725) accompanying the Communication on a single market for 21st century Europe,

–   having regard to the Commission Staff Working Document entitled "Implementing the new methodology for product market and sector monitoring: Results of a first sector screening" (SEC(2007)1517) accompanying the Communication on a single market for 21st century Europe,

–   having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (A6-0392/2008),

A.   whereas it welcomes the publication of the Consumer Markets Scoreboard (the "Scoreboard"), which aims at making the Internal Market more responsive to the expectations and concerns of citizens,

B.   whereas competitive and effectively functioning consumer markets are crucial to ensure that citizens have confidence in the Internal Market,

C.   whereas the Scoreboard needs to be complemented by other means of monitoring,

D.   whereas the indicators in the Scoreboard are meant to help to identify sectors to be studied in further detail,

E.   whereas the Scoreboard should stimulate debate on consumer policy issues,

F.   whereas studies and analyses from national consumer and competition authorities may be relevant for the further development of the Scoreboard,

Introduction

1.  Stresses the importance of enabling citizens to benefit fully from the benefits of the Internal Market, and sees the Scoreboard as an important tool to this end;

2.  Welcomes the five main indicators in the Scoreboard in relation to complaints, price levels, satisfaction, switching and safety;

3.  Underlines that the Scoreboard is in its infancy and needs to be further developed with more complete data, more precise statistics and further analyses based on the various indicators;

4.  Stresses that when a satisfactory level of development of the five basic indicators of the Scoreboard is reached, new indicators should be drawn up in order to make the Internal Market more responsive to the expectations and concerns of citizens;

5.  Calls on the Commission to ensure adequate financing and staffing for the purposes referred to in paragraphs 3 and 4;

6.  Encourages the Commission to ensure a coherent and coordinated approach within its services in order to avoid duplication of work and contradictory outcomes of data analysis;

7.  Calls on the Commission to include an easily comprehensible summary as well as clear conclusions and recommendations in future Scoreboards, translated into all official languages of the European Union;

Developing the indicators

8.  Takes the view that the total number of indicators should be limited to ensure a focused Scoreboard;

9.  Takes the view that an indicator related to complaints is essential to understand consumer satisfaction; calls on the Commission and the Member States to work towards a harmonisation of the complaint classification systems used by the competent authorities and relevant consumer assistance services in the Member States and at Community level and to establish an EU-wide database of consumer complaints; calls on Member States to raise consumer awareness of complaints systems and to improve the handling of complaints in order to enable economic operators to offer more and better services;

10.  Calls on the Commission to develop indicators relating to cross-border judicial proceedings and compensation for damage suffered by consumers, through judicial and extrajudicial means of redress, as well as through existing national redress mechanisms;

11.  Takes the view that indicators relating to consumer literacy, skills and age (for example level of education, computer literacy and foreign language skills) could be included in the Scoreboard; underlines, however, the importance of striking a balance between indicators based on 'soft' data stemming from consumer surveys and 'hard' data based on other sources;

12.  Acknowledges that developing precise and adequate price indicators is a very complex issue as differences in price levels may have a number of causes and their existence is as such not proof of market failure; however, holds the view that the Scoreboard should include price indicators, as prices are of key concern to consumers and price indicators are important to stimulate debate and ensure media awareness concerning shortcomings in the functioning of markets; calls on the Commission to take into account the macroeconomic climate as well as consumers' purchasing power and pre-tax prices in the Member States;

13.  Welcomes efforts to develop more sophisticated price indicators, but also calls for the use of other indicators relating to the effective functioning of markets before making specific policy recommendations;

14.  Recalls that ethical and environmental concerns are of increasing importance for consumers; calls on the Commission to look into the possibility of measuring the availability of information relating to such concerns in different markets;

Improving the information base

15.  Underlines the importance of close cooperation between the statistical offices of the Member States, Eurostat and other Commission services in ensuring the quality and completeness of figures; calls on the Member States to take steps to facilitate such cooperation;

16.  Recalls that national consumer and competition authorities often undertake case studies or are in possession of other evidence concerning the functioning of different markets, hence calls on the Commission to draw on available national information and to consult actively with national experts when further developing the Scoreboard;

17.  Encourages Member States to explore the merits of establishing a special Consumer Ombudsman; notes that a number of Member States have consumer ombudsmen in several sectors who help consumers to deal with economic operators;

18.  Calls on the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, to ensure that European consumer information centres are given greater resources and are properly staffed in order both efficiently to solve the increasing number of consumer cross-border complaints and to shorten handling times for such complaints;

Increased awareness

19.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to raise awareness of the Scoreboard, inter alia by ensuring that it is easily accessible and visible on relevant websites, and to increase efforts to promote the Scoreboard to the media, public authorities and consumer organisations;

Relationship to the Internal Market Scoreboard

20.  Holds the view that the Internal Market Scoreboard and the Consumer Markets Scoreboard both serve to promote an improved Internal Market for the benefit of citizens and consumers;

21.  Welcomes the Commission's intention to ensure a better-communicated Internal Market, and holds the view that the two Scoreboards are important steps in that direction;

22.  Emphasises that while the two Scoreboards are interlinked and it is important to promote their coherent development, they have different target audiences and hence should be kept separate, with different sets of indicators;

23.  Holds the view that a review of the indicators used as well as the relationship between the two Scoreboards should be carried out on a regular basis in order to adapt them to developments in the Internal Market;

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24.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.

(1) OJ C 187 E, 24.7.2008, p. 231. (2) Texts adopted, P6_TA(2008)0211. (3) Texts adopted, P6_TA(2008)0421.