ZPS SLOVENE CONSUMERS' ASSOCIATION

1
ZPS -SLOVENE CONSUMERS' ASSOCIATION

•  
• FOUNDED IN 1990 MAIN ACTIVITIES
• CONSUMER ADVICE, INFORMATION AND REPRESENTATION
•  
• in 14 years advised more then 80 000 consumers
  by phone, in person or by mail
• Founder of consumer magazine VIP in March 1991
• issuing approx 30 brochures and leaflets ,
• maintaining strong media coverage

2
ZPS- SLOVENE CONSUMERS' ASSOCIATION

• CONSUMER REPRESENTATION AND ADVOCACY
• participated in drafting Consumer Protection Act,
  Consumer Credit Act, Housing Act, GMO Act
• lobbying government and parliament on consumer
  policy, health policy, financial systems,
  e-commerce, food safety, telecommunications, out
  of court dispute resolution
• Co-operating with NGOs to strengthen NGOs
  position in Slovenia
•  

3
ZPS INTERNATIONAL LINKS AND ACTIVITIES

• since 1991 full member of Consumers
  International
• since 1994 Council member of Consumers
  International
• since 1995 member of BEUC
• since 1993 member of International Consumer
  Research
• and Testing
• observer in Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue
• active participation with CI in Codex
  Allimentarius and WTO for several years

4
ICORI - INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER RESEARCH INSTITUTE

• Established in 1993
• Main activities
• Publishing consumer magazine VIP,booklets,
  leaflets
• Comparative testing and quality assesment
• Research to support ZPS advocacy and lobbying
• Consumer Policy development in CEE and SEE
• Capacity building of consumer NGOs in SEE (with
  ZPS)
• International co-operation

5
ZPS - ICORI

• Involvement of consumer organisation in community
  programmes and projects
• active participation/organization of
  conferences, stakeholder workshops
• market and consumer opinion surveys
• sampling of products
• desemination of information

6
ZPS ICORI Food quality and safety from stable
to table

• Consumer is at the table and when the consumer is
  an informed consumer
• - is a confident consumer
• can make an informed choice
• contributes to improvements of products and
  services
• contributes to market competition

7
ZPS - SCA

• ZPS activities in the field of food safety
• Active involvement in preparation of legislation
• Active involvement - committees GSO, national
  nutrition programme, eco farming, environment..
• Active involvement March 2003 organized a
  conference on Food safety agency for Slovenia
• Product testing pesticides, GMO, nitrates etc
• Planned articles in magazine VIP

8
ZPS - SCA

• ZPS activities
• Consumer advice
• Active work with media, press conferences
• Participation on conferences
• NVO coalition for GMO free Slovenia
• Research activity, partners in community
  projects, GMO testing, allergen testing, transfat
  testing etc...

9
ZPS SCASlovenia

• Food safety status
• Legislation in place at least within five
  ministries
• Enfocement in place - also in five ministries
• BSE, dioxin, chloramfenicol, food poisoning rate
  of 600/100000
• Transparency is lacking no publicly available
  data on enforcement yet

10
ZPS - SCA

• Good practice example
• Encourage change
• Seek to restore confidence
• Be persistent and active
• Give consumer a positive advice
• Do not give up

11
ZPS - ICORI

• Thank you
• Marjana Peterman
• Food officer
• marjana_at_zps-zveza.si