THE LAUNCHING of a project to educate Cypriots living in rural areas about consumer rights and consumer safety was announced yesterday at the Kyrenia Municipality by the Trade Minister, the Agros mukhtar, and the president of the Consumers’ Association.
As part of this programme, funded by the European Union and the Trade Ministry, seven day-long workshops will take place between September 23 and December 2 in seven rural areas – Agros, Evrychou, Omodos, Lefkara, Stroumbi, Polis and Deryneia.
Four pamphlets have also been published covering consumer rights, toy safety, general product safety, and the EU Consumer Association called RAPEX, all of which will be distributed to government agencies, hotels, tourism offices, and other locations.
RAPEX (The Rapid Alert System for Non-Food Products) sends out a list every week listing non-food products that pose safety risks to consumers. The weekly report can be viewed online and includes a brief description of the dangerous product, the name of the notifying member state, a summary of the danger, and a description of the measures that were adopted by the country.
Dangerous transparent gelatinous-filled markers were recently recalled in Cyprus after they were listed on the RAPEX bulletin. In the search for the markers, some strawberry-scented erasers were also identified on store shelves and recalled as they too posed risks to young children who might want to consume them.
At yesterday’s presentation, president of the Consumers’ Association Petros Markou spoke of the increased need for consumers to be informed about what was available on the marketplace. “This tremendous increase in petrol prices and the increasing expensiveness of life in our country has especially been felt in the lower economic classes. It is especially important for consumers to be informed about the quality of the products on the marketplace so they can select and decide what they want to buy.”
“We are going to be informing consumers about the realities of the market,” Agros mukhtar Christophoros Papachristou said. “If a company abruptly increases its prices, we can tell the consumers that it is not justified.” He added that the project was directed at rural communities because consumer-related projects in past years had always been confined to urban areas.
Trade Minister George Lillikas said that the project would also be focused on tourism-related projects. “Keeping in mind that Cyprus today is an important tourism destination, this programme will upgrade the quality of tourism services on the island.”
Responding to questions at the end of the presentation, Lillikas again repeated the assertion that the EU does not allow him to intervene to lower petrol prices. “In the free market, the government cannot intervene to lower prices.”
Lillikas acknowledged that the government had recently lowered gas prices by 85 cents, but that was only after it had been granted permission to do so by the EU authorities.
The Trade Minister did, however, state that the government would impose strict fines if there was evidence that companies had violated free competition laws by colluding to increase prices.
“So it’s a good idea for them to be careful”, he said.
