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Monthly Newsletter edited by Cittadinanzattiva-Active Citizenship Network
Civic Activism | Patients' Rights | Consumers' Rights | Support ACN
SPECIAL EDITION ON CONSUMER ISSUES
Year 7th, number 72 - August/September 2019
Highlight

Towards the Inter-institutional Group “SDGs for Well-being and Consumers’ Protection”
As underlined in the context of the Annual European Citizen’s Energy Forum, when the global population will reach 10 billion, experts warn that the equivalent of almost three planets would be required to provide the natural resources needed to sustain current lifestyles – and this could be by 2050! A majority of EU citizens are now conscious of environmental issues and they are willing to make environmentally correct choices in their consumption. However, they encounter many obstacles in translating their willingness into action, and the gap between intentions and actions remains high. In the last months, young people in several EU countries have been manifesting and asking for a more ambitious political leadership on climate action and green lifestyles. There is therefore a momentum for a public action to accelerate the transition to the green economy. What responses could EU consumer policy provide?  What is the citizens’ role in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provided by the Agenda 2030? What are the connections with European consumers' rights? 
Citizens at global level are united by a common language, the one of the SDGs, which should shift
from being a simple language to being a shared “culture of doing”. Read more

Focus

“O.R.A. – Open Road Alliance” project launched
During the annual European Mobility Week, Cittadinanzattiva renewed its commitment in spreading a sustainable mobility culture. On 19th September, in Rome, it was officially presented the new multi-annual project on sustainable mobility in Italy. The initiative, promoted by Cittadinanzattiva and Fondazione Unipolis, aims to:
strengthen a new mobility culture through education in order to achieve a new type of mobility, in line with the UN Agenda 2030 goals; to make urban mobility sustainable, starting from younger generations and involving all the stakeholders; to define a new "Sustainable Mobility Manifesto" for 14 Italian Metropolitan Cities.
To know more about this initiative, please click here, watch the official video and visit the dedicated website (IT language).

Some clippings and press articles (IT language):

» Il Sole24Ore (20 Sept 2019)
» Avvenire (19 Sept 2019)
» Adnkronos (19 Sept 2019)
» LaPresse (19 Sept 2019)
» Askanews (19 Sept 2019)
» HelpConsumatori (19 Sept 2019)
» Dire.it (19 Sept 2019)
» Affaritaliani.it (19 Sept 2019)
» IlCorriere.it (19 Sept 2019)
» Vita.it (19 Sept 2019)
» FERPRESS (11 Sept 2019)
» The video interview of the Secretary General at Cittadinanzattiva Antonio Gaudioso

Italy: “#Mobilità sostenibile” started at the regional level
In the Emilia Romagna region, the regional body of Cittadinanzattiva is engaged in a new initiative on mobility, started during the European Mobility Week and realized in the framework of the project "Formiamo consumAUTORI del futuro". The initiative encourages citizens to be better informed and more active towards sustainable mobility. To do so, citizens are invited to download a leaflet, a guide for citizens and to fill an online questionnaire (IT language).
To know more about this initiative, please visit the dedicated website (IT language).


To read about our commitment as associated partner of the European Mobility Week, click here.

News
Consumers' Rights

11th Citizens’ Energy Forum
On 12th and 13th September in Dublin, Cittadinanzattiva was invited by the EU Commission to attend - for the third year in a row - the annual Citizens' Energy Forum, hosted in the Aviva Stadium. This year the focus was on youth and climate change and - for the first time - the European Commission decided to invite students and youth organisations to take part in the debates.
The meeting hosted three different panels, dedicated to “Engaging citizens in the energy transition for consumers”, “Sustainable finance for greener and cleaner energy”, “The next step in the energy transition for consumers”. To know more, click here.

To know more about our committment on energy policies at the national and the EU level, please click here.

Action grants for limiting dual quality and strengthening consumer organisations in the EU
The new call for proposal is linked to the EU “Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme” and its deadline is on 6th November 2019. Some of the call’s specific objectives are:

  • To enable consumer organisations: (i) to test and compare basic food and non-food consumption products, in relation to the issue of dual quality following sound methodological practices; (ii) to disseminate the test results, both in the national and cross-border context;
  • To achieve an effective implementation of the ‘Framework for selecting and testing of food products to assess quality related characteristics: EU harmonised testing methodology’, presented by the EU Commission’s Joint Research Centre on 25th April 2018, at national level;
  • To develop and implement good methods for testing and comparing non-food products;
  • To identify potentially misleading branding strategies or potentially misleading information provided on the packaging, and to create tools for reporting them in all relevant instances, in order to maximise consumer protection;
  • To exchange best practices and to facilitate cross-border cooperation between consumer organisations and/or competent authorities and relevant private players, while improving consumer organisations’ advocacy policies in the above priority areas.

To know more, click here.

European Consumer Consultative Group: brief meeting report
At the occasion of the last meeting organized just before the summer break, the consumer organisations involved in the ECCG – such as Cittadinanzattiva, representing Italian consumer associations - were informed that the EU Commission is preparing a contract for the production of four educational projects: two videos targeting young consumers (aged 18-28) and two videos targeting the general consumer public. The videos will be disseminated in all the Member States. The EU Commission will organise a “call for ideas” to gather input from consumer organisations and youth organisations on the possible storyboards for the four videos. The consumer organisations will, thus, be asked to lay an active role in such call for ideas. To know more, click here

Network News

26th September 2019, Brussels (Belgium): EU Product Safety Award
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers has launched in February 2019 the very first EU Product Safety Award. The aim of this initiative is to spread and reward the best business practices that "go the extra mile" in product safety. For this pilot edition, the Award is focusing on both SMEs and larger companies dedicated to enhancing children's safety. Cittadinanzattiva has been invited to attend the award ceremony. To know more, click here

2nd & 3rd October 2019, Rome (Italy): EU-JAV Annual Meeting
The 2019 annual meeting of the European Joint Action on Vaccination will take place at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita in Rome. Active Citizenship Network has been officially invited to attend the Annual Meeting as a stakeholder partner. To know more, click here.

3rd October 2019, Montreuil Cedex (France): “Climate Change and Consumption: what are the links?”
This international meeting is organized by the French consumer association Indecosa with the aim to better understand how to promote a more sustainable approach in the area of production and consumption of primary goods. The European Consumer Union, a new EU umbrella consumer association joined by Cittadinanzattiva, has been invited to represent the consumers’ perspective at the EU level. To know more, click here (FR language).

 


Director and Editor in chief: Mariano Votta
Editors: Daniela Quaggia, Bianca Ferraiolo, Federico Foti e Riccardo Schwarz
Coordination and Production: Giacomo D'Orazio 

To contribute, plase write to: mail@activecitizenship.net
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