CYIL vol. 8 (2017)

CYIL 8 ȍ2017Ȏ

DOES THE FULL HARMONIZATION OF THE CONSUMERS’ PROTECTION …

Europe 2020 and its insight on unfair commercial practice The EU faces many challenges, and there are many ongoing EU projects designed to support integration and enhance a healthy competitive environment, i.e. competitiveness and the sustainable development of EU businesses, internally as well as vis-á-vis the external global business world. 26 These policies need to be co-ordinated and aimed toward a goal or a set of goals, i.e. they need to have both a mission and a vision. Hence, a unified strategy in this respect was needed and the Commission made a key move in 2010. Europe 2020 is the EU’s growth strategy for the coming decade, issued as a Communication of the Commission from 2010 on three mutually reinforcing priorities for the EU – a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy, resp. growth. This trio is projected in “ five ambitious objectives - on employment, innovation, education, social inclusion and climate/energy - to be reached by 2020 ” 27 and reflected by seven flagship initiatives. Smart growth is covered by the flagship initiatives linked to digital agenda, innovation Union, and youth on the move. Sustainable growth is covered by the flagship initiatives linked to a resource efficient Europe, and industrial policy for the globalization era. Inclusive growth is covered by the flagship initiatives linked to the agenda for new jobs and to the European platform against poverty. No flagship initiative specifically mentions the unfair commercial practices, but it needs to be kept in mind, firstly, that they are partially present in several of these seven flagship initiatives and, secondly, that the seven flagship initiatives are neither exhaustive nor exclusive. Europe 2020 was made to face a movement of transformation and requires stronger economic governance to avoid a decline of highly interdependent economies, indeed “A stronger, deeper, extended single market is vital for growth and job creation … it is needed to re-launch the single market… requires well functioning and well-connected markets where competition and consumer access stimulate growth and innovation” (3.1 Europe 2020). It continues by stressing “ well functioning and well-connected markets where competition and consumer access stimulate growth and innovation. Access for SMEs to the single market must be improved. Entrepreneurship must be developed by concrete policy initiatives, including a simplification of company law (bankruptcy procedures, private company statutes, etc.), and initiatives allowing entrepreneurs to restart after failed businesses. Citizens must be empowered to play a full part in the single market.” SMEs are instrumental for the improvement of the single market and the competition in it, and consumers should help in this respect! This clashes with the national perspective of weak and vulnerable consumers, indeed pursuant to Europe 2020 consumers are vigilant, educated and strong consumers, i.e. an average consumer who is reasonably well-informed and reasonably observant and circumspect, as suggested by C-470/93 Mars and C-315/92 Clinique, as identified and described by the milestone precedent of the CJ EU in C-210/96 Gut Springenheide and Tusky, 28 and as repeatedly and consistently confirmed by C -220/98 26 MacGREGOR PELIKÁNOVÁ, R., Internet My Dearest, What Type of European Integration Is The Clearest? Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 2013, 61(7), 2475-2481. Permanently available at http://dx.doi.org/10.11118/actaun201361072475. 27 Official website of Commission on Europe 2020 available at http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/index_en.htm [Accessed on 30 May 2017]. 28 C-210/96 Gut Springheide and Tusky of 16 May 1996 available at http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/ document.jsf;jsessionid=9ea7d0f130d54028fd0d5bc2473b86bdbe9e5e3064af.e34KaxiLc3eQc40LaxqMbN4P axuMe0?text=&docid=44018&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=261304 [Accessed on 30 May 2017].

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