"Consumers are all set to extend their horizons beyond their national markets, especially in the frontier regions between Member States of the European Community. What they need, though, is the right information." It was with these words that the Member of the Commission responsible for consumer policy, Mrs Christiane Scrivener, greeted the official opening this Thursday of a new European consumer information centre covering the area Aachen - Eupen - Maastricht. Set up jointly by the North Rhine-Westphalia Verbraucherzentrale (consumers' organisation), the Verbraucherschutzzentrale Ostbelgien (consumer protection organisation for eastern Belgium) and the Dutch organisation PLANpraktijk, the centre's mission is to provide information to consumers on the range of goods and services on offer in their region, to conduct transfrontier surveys and comparison exercises, and to advise consumers on their rights should a problem arise with a supplier in a neighbouring country. "As far as consumers are concerned, Europe starts at grassroots level: in our local districts and regions and more particularly in the frontier regions," is how Mrs Scrivener put it in her message. The Commission currently provides up to half the funding for 10 pilot projects of this type. A number of these consumer information and advice centres are in full operation: in addition to the new Aachen office (with linked offices in Eupen and St Vith in Belgium and another soon to open in Maastricht in the Netherlands), there are centres in Lille, Luxembourg, Barcelona and Gronau (on the border between Germany and the Netherlands). A further consumer information centre is in the course of being set up in northern Portugal, in close cooperation with Galicia (Spain), and four more will be opening for business over the coming months. What they all have in common is that they are located in inner-Community frontier regions which see a large volume of cross-border traffic, and where the need for consumer information is most keenly felt. The kind of things dealt with by the centres range from the new opportunities available to consumers with the elimination of tax frontiers (e.g. purchases of goods or financial investment in other Member States) to the kind of problems which are always going to crop up (e.g. contract law and different commercial practices, difficulties over guarantees, etc.). The initial results of this work are encouraging. As Mrs Scrivener put it: "This is a very tangible measure to the immediate benefit of consumers. It has been made possible by Community support, but is run by existing organisations in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity."
