Membership development

Membership development

How we help strengthen the consumer movement across Europe

A strong consumer movement across all European countries is vital for consumers to be well-represented in decision making at both national and European level. Consumer organisations are watchdogs that see to it that consumer rights are well designed, as well as properly and effectively enforced.

Consumer organisations in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe – also known by the acronym CESEE – face difficulties in this. The consumer movement here consists of small organisations that lack resources or recognition as legitimate stakeholders by their governments. It is also worrying that many rely solely on public funding, which is dwindling.

As a pan-European consumer organisation, we work to increase the influence of our members in this region.

Our plan and its implementation

In 2010, we started planning how to strengthen the standing of consumer organisations and policy in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

BEUC and its member organisations have taken the lead and carry out activities to turn our strategy into reality. An example is capacity building through targeted training and mentoring schemes.

In 2019, the EU Directorate General for Justice and Consumers (DG JUST) made extra funding available and trusted BEUC to launch projects and programmes that address the situation in CESEE countries.

Our actions

We bring people together

Successful cooperation builds bridges for the future. In 2016, for example, we organised a conference with our Czech member dTest on how to better enforce consumers’ rights through boosting cooperation between consumer organisations and national authorities. Among its key recommendations: start with small, pilot cooperation projects. Such recommendations contribute to the roll-out of consumer organisations’ watchdog function across Europe.

We carry out projects

‘Actions speak louder than words’, as the saying goes. BEUC has supported several projects to enhance our members’ financial sustainability as well as visibility and legitimacy in their country.

  • Mentoring programme: ZPS (Slovenia) and dTest (Czech Republic) have been respectively mentored by Altroconsumo (Italy) and Consumentenbond (Netherlands) to implement their projects, with support from Which? (UK). ZPS ran the first ‘energy switching campaign’ in a CESEE country, while dTest revamped its website which helped them increase their membership.
  • BEUC fund for members: our Latvian and Lithuanian members teamed up to create a ‘First Aid Kit for Consumers’. This is an online tool supporting consumers in the complaints procedure before entering an Alternative Dispute Resolution. Federacja Konsumentów (Poland) and BNAAC (Bulgaria) also benefited from the fund, respectively to organise an ‘energy switching campaign’ and to develop a tustmark for online shopping  in their country.
  • Croatian pilot project: Croatia was until recently the only EU country where BEUC did not have a representative. With many small organisations competing for scarce resources, it was essential for us to kick-off a structured dialogue between stakeholders at national and European level. To do so, BEUC appointed a coordinator, Dinko Mihaljević, in November 2015. Three years later, this resulted in the establishment of a new umbrella oragnisation, the Croatian Alliance of Consumers (Unija potrosaca Hrvatske), which was admitted in 2018 as BEUC affiliate member.

We inform and train consumer professionals

Another initiative – fully funded by the European Commission and run by BEUC until July 2021 – is the Consumer PRO programme. It aims to make consumer organisations and other actors in consumer policy stronger and better equipped to protect consumers in all EU member states as well as Iceland and Norway. It is a follow-up project to Consumer Champion which encompassed e-learning modules, class teaching and local training courses hold across the CESEE countries.

Our successes

  • Our Czech member created a brand new website and is now financially sustainable
  • First ‘energy switching campaign’ in the CESEE countries, ran by our Slovenian member (resulting in a 16% increase in its membership)
  • ‘Energy switching campaign’ run in Poland by Federacja Konsumentów which increased their visibility and credibility in the country
  • Launch of the ‘First Aid Kit for Consumers’ tool in the Baltic countries

How can you help us?

We need funding to continue the various initiatives we have launched. This is partly covered by ourselves, our member organisations and commitments of EU & national institutions. Support from additional funders is much-needed to complement this. Visit our fundraising page to see what you can do.

Further reading

The documents below provide in-depth information on our work in CESEE countries.

Contact

For more information on our work in CESEE countries, please contact Florence Punzano – Senior Project Officer / Project leader on capacity building.
 

Contact Card
florence punzano
Florence Punzano
Senior Policy Officer