The Euro: Consequences for the Consumer and the Citizen

This volume explores the consumer perspectives of the introduction of the Euro. In 1996, the European Commission set up a Euro Working Group, which brought together all the families of consumers' associations and is responsible for providing the Commission with reasoned opinions on consumer policies and measures. In 1997, they were joined by a team of psychologists, sociologists and experts in people's attitudes to money, of various nationalities. Their task was to take a closer look at all the psychosociological issues related to the Euro and, wherever possible, to draw practical conclusions about the measures to be taken in order to facilititate the changover to the Euro for the various population groups. The task had to be organised in such a way as to answer three questions: What is the changeover to the euro? What is a currency? What is a consumer?£/LIST£ The inter-disciplinary group of experts tackled this whole gamut of problems and issues. Their work, in cooperation with the commission's departments (the Directorate-General for Consumer Policy, DGXXIV) and the Euro Working Group of the Consumer Committee, considerably influenced the decisions of the Community authorities. The dossier presented here is an edited selection of the reports prepared by members of this group, covering the reports on an extremely wide range of questions. All these reports are available from DGXXIV. Furthermore, this book contains the main sections of the report prepared by the Euro Working Group of the Consumer Committee, which served as an important point of departure for the experts' work and is repeatedly referred to in their articles