FEDERACION ESPAÑOLA DE MUNICIPIOS Y PROVINCIAS

The Councils may raise the State Administration initiatives Consumption through a new cooperation body


Local corporations may raise consumer policy initiatives the Administration of the State through a permanent body for cooperation. The creation of this body envisaged in the Partnership Framework Agreement signed today between the National Consumer Institute (INC), an agency under the Ministry of Health and Social Policy, and the FEMP.


The overall objective of the agreement is to establish a collaborative framework between the two parties for the design and development of policies of common interest at the local and state governments in the area of protection of the rights and interests of consumers and users.
 
This collaboration includes training objectives and information for consumers, conflict resolution (Consumer Arbitration System), security products, tracking queries and complaints received by the Municipal Offices Consumer Information (OMIC) and management consumption.
 
The agreement has been signed by the general manager and director of Consumer INC, Etelvina Andreu, and the Secretary General of the FEMP, Isaura Leal. The firm has also been present the Chairman of the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Trade of the FEMP, Josep Maria Tost, Mayor of Riudecanyes (Tarragona).
 
Features of the new body
 
Through the Authority provided for in this agreement will institutionalize relations and inter-administrative cooperation, joint actions will be planned by the State Administration and Local Authorities within their areas of competence and assess reports on standards under development affecting the municipal level the consumer.
 
Furthermore, this body will serve as a channel for distributing information of interest to the municipal offices Consumer Information (OMIC) for transmitting criteria agreed control action in the market and to establish a network with computer tools that facilitate the management of the proceedings to be decided on the protection of consumers.
 
Legal basis
 
The powers of consumption in the Spanish State are shared by three administrations (national, regional and local), which requires that there are some basic parameters of cooperation and coordination between them to ensure proper protection of consumer rights.
 
This ongoing cooperation is articulated in the field of autonomous state relations, through the Sectoral Conference on Consumption and the Consumer Cooperation Commission.
 
In the area of relations between the state and local governments did not exist until now, no similar body, although the current Law on Rules of the Local authorizes the creation of joint bodies in a consultative capacity, between government and relevant local authorities.
 
The same law mandates that the Government, through the FEMP, must take the necessary measures "to enforce the participation of local authorities in the formation of the national will in the upward phase of the production process of all our policies that to directly affect local expertise, "among which included the consumer.
 
Also the text of the General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users and other complementary legislation provides for the establishment of permanent bodies for cooperation of the Ministry of Health and Social Policy with local corporations.