| DROITS FONDAMENTAUX ET CREDIT À LA CONSOMMATION – Est-ce que ces droits sont toujours pris aux sérieux dans la Société à Crédit qui existe actuellement en Europe ? |
Although the Constitution has not passed, and may not ever be passed in the future, the charter of fundamental rights of the European Union is in force. It is much less formal than the European Treaty itself, which seems to be the basis of economic policies and seems to forget that social issues are probably as important as the power of our industry in the world.
When discussing the Consumer Credit Directive, Brussels should carefully read its articles and respond to those that have the opinion that such rights are better treated at the national level.
The credit society has invented creditworthiness as the most effective way of discriminating between people. With scoring systems and databases, people are singled out on account of their income, their unemployment, the size of their family, their addresses etc.., with the result that some people are only either given credit at high interest or not given credit at all. Families with small children especially suffer a lot from overindebtedness, and this limits the chances of our future generation. These issues are not even mentioned in a regulation that claims to set the maximum limits for state intervention in credit.
Is all this in line with Art. 21 that forbids "discrimination based on social origin"; with Ar. 24 which orders member states and the EU to seek the protection and care of children's rights; or with Art.8 which also requires from payment databases that "data must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law. Everyone has the right of access to data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified." Though the Directive is anxious about access to the database by users of the data, the Charter actually has a different focus. Why, considering Art. 33 which says that "The family shall enjoy legal, economic and social protection." did the Commission omit from the previous draft, the protection of personal guarantees to protect wives and children at least to the same extend as the borrower himself?
Despite already two countries accepting that Financial Services are Services of first necessity, we do not read anything concerning either Art.36 (which requires "access to services of general interest") or Art. 38 ("Union policies shall ensure a high level of consumer protection.") in the Directive, ever since this goal from Art. 1 of the directive was taken out, and since exemptions from protection were made for the many consumers that take out small amounts of credit, short term credit, credit from their employer or microcredit, or credit on a credit-card or from an overdraft.
Finally we could think about whether the Chapter on Solidarity should remain restricted to dependent wage work, when many other people today actually work under conditions where the credit as such creates a dependency of its own. Why do only workers get into Article 30 "the right to protection against unjustified dismissal, in accordance with Community law and national laws and practices." when a credit cancellation often has more devastating effects than the loss of the job?
Annexed below is a link to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union |
| ID: |
38806 |
| Auteur(s): |
iff |
| Date de parution: |
23/10/06 |
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Created: 23/10/06. Last Changes: 23/10/06.
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