Retail market monitoring report

EESC opinion: Retail market monitoring report

Key points:

The EESC acknowledges the importance of the retail sector in the Single Market as well as its contribution to the overall European economy. The EESC welcomes the holistic approach developed by the European Commission in the Retail Market Monitoring Report and concurs with the need to avoid focusing on individual sub-sectors.

Furthermore, in its opinion, the Committee draws a series of remarks and recommendations. Among these, the EESC:

- regrets that too little attention is paid to SMEs;
- is concerned with measures in some countries aimed at controlling price levels or margins;
- calls that manifestly unfair practices occurring in the entire food supply chain be analysed and addressed appropriately;
- calls on the Commission to study how "unfair contractual relations" are dealt with at national level, including enforcement;
- calls on the Commission to support the promotion of self employment, entrepreneurship and skills development;
- calls for a timely adoption of proposals, and urges the European Commission to speed up its decision-making in an area that requires urgent, practical and tangible action.