"I believe that we share the belief that a competitive internal market is the fundamental guarantee of new opportunities for creative potential by European entrepreneurs to the benefit of consumers. In that regard, during our presidency we will strengthen inter-departmental cooperation of all political stakeholders to protect consumers," the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts quoted Horvat as saying.
Horvat underlined that addressing the issues of consumer protection is one of the fundamental tasks within the framework of Croatia's priority -- a Europe that develops -- and all with the aim of raising citizens' awareness of the rights that they have as consumers and how to exercise those rights.
To this aim, Croatia will organise a series of events during its presidency aimed at motivating cooperation between institutions in charge of consumer protection policies and the application of consumer legislation.
With regard to planning legislative activities within the framework of the Council of the European Union, Horvat underlined that Croatia's presidency would continue working on legislation that is related to protecting the collective interests of consumers.
Commissioner Reynders was quoted as saying that the Commission will support all the activities mentioned, adding that it is good to include different stakeholders in the issue of consumer protection, and that their impact is visible at different political levels, such as digitising the economy and artificial intelligence.
The main event for the topic of consumer protection will be an informal ministerial dialogue - Future 5.0 Agenda, which will be held 26 and 27 March 2020 in Zagreb, the ministry informed, noting that the meeting will be preceded by a two-day annual meeting of the European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) - ECC - Net Cooperation Day which is scheduled for 24 and 25 March.
The Consumer Protection Network (CPN) is also scheduled to meet in Zagreb on 25 March while European Consumer Day will be held on June 18 this year also in Zagreb, the ministry added.
The ministry underlines that the priority of each of these events is to intensify inclusion of young people in implementing consumer protection policies by involving the academic community and students to implement projects to inform and educate consumers in an effort to raise awareness of consumer protection policies and of risk management.