Today was European Consumer Day – an annual event launched by the EESC over a decade ago. The tradition is to organise a thematic conference on the day, alternating between Brussels and the Member States. This year the conference took place in Madrid, with the participation, among others, of our President, Mario Sepi, two Commissioners (Vice-President Viviane Reding and John Dalli), the Chairman of the EP’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, Malcolm Harbour, and Francisco Moza Zapatero, Secretary General of Social Policy and Consumption at the Spanish Ministry of Health and Social Policy. Reding promised that consumer protection would be at the heart of the new European Commission’s agenda, while Harbour called for the establishment of a five-year strategic framework for consumers. All very promising for the Committee which, for twelve years now, has insisted on the need to enforce the rights of consumers so that they can make the most of the EU’s ‘crown jewel’; the single market. You can see clips of the conference on President Mario Sepi’s blog here.