Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Whereas:

Article 153 of the Treaty assigns the Community the task of ensuring a high level of consumer protection, as well as promoting their right to information and to organise themselves in order to safeguard their interests. In addition, consumer protection requirements are to be taken into account in defining and implementing other Community policies and activities.

In accordance with Protocol (No 30) on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality (1997)^f1, the Commission should consult widely before proposing legislation.

The Commission undertook, in its White Paper on European Governance^f2, to help reinforcing the culture of consultation and dialogue in the Community.

The Communication from the Commission entitled: Follow-up to the Green Paper ‘European Transparency Initiative’^f3 announced the intention to raise further the general level of quality of Commission's consultations.

With a view to advising the Commission on improving the stakeholder consultation process in the areas of public health and consumer protection, the Commission may need to call upon the expertise of specialists in an advisory body.

It is therefore necessary to set up a stakeholder dialogue group in the areas of public health and consumer protection and to define its tasks and its structure.

The stakeholder dialogue group should advise the Commission on best practice in the consultation process and also help it to better tailor its stakeholder involvement processes to stakeholders' needs in the areas of public health and consumer protection.

The stakeholder dialogue group should be composed of a balanced representation of stakeholders, from both industry (federations and individual companies) and non-governmental organisations, concerned by the different policy areas covered by the Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection.

Members of the stakeholder dialogue group should be appointed in such a way as to secure the highest standards of competence, a broad range of relevant expertise and, consistent with these criteria, the broadest possible geographic distribution within the Community, as well as a gender balance.

Rules on the disclosure of information by members of the stakeholder dialogue group should be provided for in this Decision. Such rules should be without prejudice to the Commission’s rules on security as set out in the Annex to Commission Decision 2001/844/EC, ECSC, Euratom of 29 November 2001 amending its internal Rules of Procedure^f4.

Personal data relating to members of the stakeholder dialogue 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^f5,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: