Panel on Consumer representation in the EU at Conference for Europeanists

This June, the 27^th International Conference of Europeanists will feature a panel dedicated entirely to the question of consumer representation in the European Union. The panel, proposed by the researchers on the Consumers on the March project, will also feature internationally renowned scholars on the subject: professor Hans Micklitz from the European University Institute in Florence and Brigitte Leucht, who is based at the University of Portsmouth. The conference will take place in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The Conference brings together scholars in the field of European studies every year. Under the title In the Name of European Consumers, the panelists will explore the ways in which consumer policy has served as a way to bring the European Community closer to citizens. It will do so from different disciplines, ranging from EU consumer law, of which Hans Micklitz will explore the origins, to history, with the contribution of Alessandra Schimmel and Koen van Zon, who will show how European institutions spoke on behalf of European consumers. It covers a range of different perspectives as well, with Brigitte Leucht assessing the impact of the landmark Cassis de Dijon-case on consumers and Liesbeth van de Grift taking a global perspective, by investigating the ties between the European consumer movement and the global organisation Consumers International. From this wide range of approaches, the panel will examine the causes and the effects of the ways in which the European Union engaged with consumers.