Mariano Votta and Cinzia Pollio of Cittadinanzattiva discuss the launch of the EU-funded CoRe-Consumer (Re)generation project, where Cittadinanzattiva convenes a multi-stakeholder meeting to promote consumer rights education in schools and strengthen citizen awareness across Europe.
The Italian consumer organisation Cittadinanzattiva is organising the first multi-stakeholder discussion meeting as part of the new EU-funded project CoRe-Consumer (Re)generation, started in May 2025 and realised in partnership with the Union of working Consumers of Greece (EEKE) and the Romanian consumer association InfoCons.
The goal is to open a dialogue on the importance of defining consumer rights education in school curricula in a coherent, structured, and continuous manner. A concrete way to approach the strong asymmetry in the relationship between consumers and businesses we are facing in the Single Market, at the National and EU level, where the current context is marked by limited awareness of consumer rights, a weak and underdeveloped culture of complaint, and the proliferation of unfair commercial practices, both online and offline. The groups most affected by these practices – especially online – are primarily young people.
The online meeting is scheduled for September 24, 2025, at 3:00 PM (CET), and it is tailored for School principals, teachers, education experts, Consumer Association leaders, and representatives of NGOs active in the field.
Starting from the main findings and suggestions coming from an EU survey carried out by Cittadinanzattiva in the past few months, an independent expert will be invited to discuss how the topic of consumer rights education could be included in the school curricula in their Member States, and how the EU institutions could facilitate this innovative process.
As a follow-up to the European Year of Skills 2023, the project CoRe, funded by the Single Market Programme of the European Union, the EU funding programme which finances activities supporting a well-functioning, sustainable internal market – aims to provide citizens with knowledge and skills to make informed and responsible decisions, protect their rights, know how to navigate in the complexity of the modern market.
Structured around three main pillars – educational programme for young people, engaging adults as “consumer rights ambassadors”, and building a European network on the topic – the two-year project CoRe is committed to:
- Increasing knowledge and skills in young consumers (minors) regarding their rights, protections and responsibilities to make more responsible and safe choices in online and in-store purchases, through an educational path designed with a focus on the areas where they are most vulnerable, which means the unfair commercial practices and how to protect oneself from them; the product safety and combating counterfeiting.
- Increasing knowledge of consumer rights, responsibilities and protection tools, among an adult audience, with a focus on online and in-store purchases, through a process of informal consumer education, conveyed both by young people involved in consumer education and through a digital information campaign.
- Initiate a network of European stakeholders to promote dialogue on the importance of education and training on consumer rights.
