WIREDGOV

Under the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Consumer Protection Conference entitled “Future Priorities of Consumer Policy in the Digital Era” will take place in Riga on 23-24 April.

Since the adoption of the European Consumer Agenda in 2012, a number of activities to maximise consumer participation and trust in the EU Single Market have been successfully carried out. The Agenda – which is the strategic vision for EU consumer policy – clearly recognised that well designed and implemented consumer policies can enable consumers to make informed choices that reward competition and move towards sustainable growth, whilst taking into account the needs of all consumers. It is now time to shape the European Union's future consumer protection policy for the years to come.

The conference will therefore include sessions that evaluate the progress of consumer policy, along with sessions and discussions that focus on the future development of EU consumer policy.

The conference will start with keynote speeches by the Latvian Minister for Economic Affairs, Dana Reizniece-Ozola, the European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová, and European Parliament Member Inese Vaidere.

The panel discussion on “Consumer challenges in a dynamic environment” will review recent consumer policy actions and implementation of the Consumer Agenda, and will focus on challenges faced by consumers. The main speakers at this session will be high-level representatives and officials from the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), the French Ministry of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, the UK Department for Business,Innovation and Skills and BusinessEurope.

The second day of the conference will start with a panel discussion on “Priority setting in Consumer Policy” with contributions from high-level representatives from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and competent authorities from the EU Member States. Following this, three parallel breakout sessions will focus on challenges for enforcing product safety rules in the digital era; problematic consumer markets and the way forward to more effective enforcement and redress; and consumer confidence and empowerment.

The conference will take place at the Hotel Radisson Blu Daugava, 24 Kuģu iela, Riga.

The live broadcast of the conference will be available on EU2015.LV.

In Twitter communications please use the hashtag: #Consumers2015Riga