Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Whereas:

Article 153 of the Treaty assigned the European Community the task of ensuring a high level of protection for consumers, by promoting their right to information and to organising themselves in order to safeguard their interests. Article 163 provides that the Community shall encourage industry to become more competitive at international level and encourage undertakings to exploit the internal market potential to the full, including through the definition of common standards. Article 157 provides that the Community and Member States shall encourage an environment favourable to initiative and shall foster better exploitation of the industrial potential of policies.

The Commission Communication entitled ‘Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Europe: steps towards a policy framework’^f1 (hereinafter ‘the Communication’) announced the creation of the expert group on Radio Frequency Identification (hereinafter ‘RFID’) which should allow a dialogue between stakeholders, in order to fully understand and advise on action which should be taken in relation to the concerns raised in the Communication.

It is therefore necessary to set up a group of experts in the field of RFID and to define its tasks and its structure.

The group should help to develop a dialogue between consumer organisations, market actors, and national and European authorities, including data protection authorities.

Personal data relating to members of the group should be processed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data^f2.

It is appropriate to fix a period for the application of this Decision. The Commission will in due time consider the advisability of an extension,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: