05 December 2006

Eurofinas welcomes Council non-decission on Consumer Credit

Eurofinas, the European Federation representing the national associations of consumer credit providers, welcomed the decision of the Finnish Presidency not to try and force through an agreement on the Consumer Credit Directive at the Competitiveness Council of 4 December.

Eurofinas’ Director General Tanguy van de Werve commented: “It was unanimously recognized that the text would not have achieved the objective of the original Commission’s proposal to create a single market for the provision of credit to consumers. In that context, passing the file over to the German Presidency was probably the best thing to do”.

This new setback evidences the difficulty to fully harmonize consumer protection legislation at EU level, Eurofinas states. It also highlights the tendency of Member States to favour a minimum harmonization approach which gives them the opportunity to add national requirements on top of the EU-wide harmonized rules.

Press release

© Eurofinas