Welcome to the 2007 ERA European Conference & Trade EXPO.
During the next three days, I hope you will rapidly see and appreciate the efforts ERA has made in revitalizing this meeting to make it a valuable experience for all European and international attendees and to open the windows leading to the Electronic Home Shopping Quiet Revolution.
Let me share with you an exciting dimension to this conference, where European government affairs and business issues converge in a single agenda.
For the first time, Commissioner Mrs. Meglena Kuneva has elevated the consumers in Europe from the status of "citizens to protect " to the well-thought out status of the "driving force behind the economic growth of Europe." Another goal of the commissioner is to promote a single and harmonized market among the 27 member states.
Mrs. Kuneva's and the EU Commission's agenda also includes fostering growth of cross- border retailing, because the penetration and success of online and on-air home shopping--in all their forms, formats and sectors--make it a visible, tangible and highly probable market.
For years, our industry in Europe has been a pioneer and an advocate for establishing a harmonized vision of the e-retail internal market. Exciting enough, the obstacles that the Commission and our industry face in promoting a single and harmonized market are the same, as it will be clearly demonstrated in our Monday, June 18 European Forum.
What also will be clear is that Europe's businesses and lawmakers together are now assessing the impact of the digital economy on the way consumers must be educated, informed and protected--in a cross border way--and at the same time, be offered the capacity to shop from home for the best products and services, wherever they come from within the 27 member states.
Euroskeptics may smile, but these days, e-retail is taking a political dimension--in the noble and good sense of the word. Our EU institutions are in their most useful role of establishing an exciting vision and mission for us, the active business players. This is accomplished by offering all 450 millions of European citizens/consumers in mature or emerging markets the same variety of choice, quality of products, fairness and honesty of information, as well as the same guarantees and confidence in and access to companies united all over Europe by a respected code of self-regulation. Think of it, cross-border commerce represents only 6 percent of all retail in Europe. Don't you want a share of the pie?
While those of you from other parts of the globe might consider these European issues for Europeans, I urge you to come and sit in on our panels on Monday and Tuesday, chat, talk and have fun with your European counterparts, along with the VIPs and stakeholders we have invited. I'll bet you soon will be convinced that understanding and accessing the 450 million European citizens will justify your presence here a hundred times, and it will justify it even more in the upcoming years, when we will have transformed this conference into the Annual International Gathering and Showcase of Electronic Home Shopping Specialist.
I wish you three efficient, profitable, memorable and fun days in Monte Carlo.
Marcel Avargues
Executive Director
ERA Europe
