Европейски икономически и социален комитет
The proposal for a Directive to amend the Package Travel Directive aims to make the protection of travellers more effective, including in crisis situations.
This initiative reports on the application and impact of EU rules on payment services, as required by the review clause of the Second Payment Services Directive and announced in the Commission´s retail payments strategy of 2020.
On 24 October 2023 the European Commission adopted a set of actions to better prevent and mitigate critical medicine shortages in the EU. Recent critical shortages, including of certain antibiotics last winter, show that continued coordinated action is needed to address supply challenges and to make Europe's medicine supply chains more resilient in the long run. The main objective of the Communication is to prevent and mitigate critical shortages at EU level, focusing in particular on the most critical medicines, for which security of supply in the EU must be ensured at all times.
The Commission is proposing to modernise and simplify rules on out-of-court dispute resolution to adapt them to digital markets. This proposal will expand the range of issues that can be resolved through the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Directive out-of-court, including matters related to misleading advertising, access to services and unjustified geoblocking. To make this option more accessible to consumers, designated bodies such as the European Consumer Centres Network will assist consumers in understanding and accessing alternative dispute resolution procedures. The goal of the proposal is also to expedite the procedures. Improvements brought by the new rules: i) expanding the scope of the Directive; ii) incentivising the participation of businesses; iii) improving Consumer Assistance.