International

Last week I received a visit from a lobbyist from the employers' federation who was interested in proposals from the Commission to harmonise consumers' rights throughout Europe. In his view it would be very much in the interest of businesses, and especially of small businesses, if consumers enjoyed the same rights everywhere. Of course I understand that position, but can't support it if it's achieved at the expense of the Dutch consumer. The SP will oppose any proposal which has a negative effect on these rights.

The European Parliament is still deserted. Not until 30th August will most MEPs get back from their holidays, but the SP European Parliament group began work again last week. It promises to be a very full autumn and this gives us the opportunity to prepare all sorts of business in relative calm.

We've already had a few visitors, one of whom, a representative from a middle-sized German family firm, was introduced to us via the VNO-NCW, the Dutch employers' federation. Because we are identified more with the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) than with those of big companies, he emphasised the firm's family character.

His message, however, was the same as that of the major corporations, that we need to harmonise consumer rules as speedily as possible. In its own terms I can certainly see the advantages of this. Increasing numbers of people are shopping on line and it's annoying if you find out too late that you have bought something outside the Netherlands where different rules prevail to those you are used to. But you can use the same argument for websites outside Europe, which means that you would need to have such agreements with other countries too.

Quite apart from this I made it clear to the lobbyist that the SP is not in favour of complete harmonisation where this would mean the Dutch consumer losing out. In the Netherlands, for instance, you have the right to a guarantee which extends to the average life of the product in question, longer for example for a car than for a toothbrush. In other countries the maximum for any guarantee is two years, so harmonisation would in this case mean, for the Dutch consumer, a change for the worse.

In the autumn the Commission proposal on this will be thoroughly debated and voted on. The SP group in the European Parliament will be going into the details of the proposal to see where any possible sticking points might be. We've already ascertained that a majority of members is against complete harmonisation. In the weeks to come it should become clear whether this means that Dutch consumers will not lose any of our existing rights, which obviously we will be doing our best to ensure.