Consumers are powerful

European Commissioner Meglena Kuneva assumed the consumer protection portfolio last January when Bulgaria became a European Union member. Having served for seven years as her country's chief EU negotiator, Ms Kuneva, a lawyer by profession, is well-acquainted with EU legislation. Ivan Camilleri spoke to her in Brussels prior to yesterday's launch of an aggressive EU consumer protection campaign in Malta.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso's choice of assigning the consumer protection portfolio to 50-year-old Meglena Kuneva must have been inspired by the Bulgarian's excellent communication skills. For years, Ms Kuneva used to conduct her own radio talk show on Bulgaria's national radio station communicating on a one-to-one basis with her listeners.

Today, from the top echelons of the EU executive, Ms Kuneva's style remains the same as when she used to be on radio - focused and direct.

"My message to the Maltese people who form part of more than 500 million consumers in the EU is only one - know your rights," she says.

Ms Kuneva is this year targeting part of her efforts directly at Maltese consumers. In fact, Malta and Cyprus have been chosen by the Commission as beneficiaries of a fully-fledged awareness campaign on consumer rights.

"This year we are focusing specifically on the needs of Malta and Cyprus. We started in 2005 with the new EU countries and now we are moving to the south. This is very important for the EU and frankly speaking there is a gap between the old 15 member states and the new 12 because consumer protection is also a matter of experience. It depends on how curious we are and how well we know our rights.

"It is important that we ask the authorities to protect our rights as consumers but first we need to know what our rights are. Today, Malta is part of a bigger picture of 27 countries. We intend to build self-confidence in the Maltese consumer and we need to build better the civil society. We can't leave everything to the authorities. Our rights are important if we know about them."

Although an official Maltese Consumers Association has been established for a long time, its impact still leaves much to be desired. One of the problems seems to be a lack of professional administration and the European Commission is also stepping in to provide financial and technical help to rebuild the association.

"I think that the problem in Malta, or let me say challenge, is to strengthen civil society as much as possible so that it can cooperate with the state authorities on an equal footing. We need to convince everyone that civil society is an economic power. It definitely needs to be more pro-active. We are helping Maltese civil society organise itself better as this will improve the everyday life of Maltese citizens."

Expressing confidence that at the end of the nine-month-long campaign Maltese consumers will be in a better situation to protect their interests, Ms Kuneva explained that the EU campaign will be based on raising awareness.

"I am ready to be the watchdog to defend Maltese consumer rights but somebody needs to ring the bell. That is why consumers need to know how to find the right information and then, how to use it. Rights are not given on a silver tray and we need to know that this is a fight. We need to show that Maltese consumers do matter and that they are a really powerful economic operator."

Ms Kuneva said that the campaign will also focus on businesses, particularly small ones.

"Retailers and service providers are also important to our campaign. They also need to know their obligations. There needs to be trust between business and consumers and we will also be aiming at achieving this," she said.

An interview with Commissioner Kuneva will be shown tonight on Allied Newspapers' EU TV programme Tieqa Fuq l-Ewropa on TVM at 9.30 p.m.