Editorial

This is the first edition of our new electronic newsletter, Consumer Voice, covering all of the policy areas of my Directorate-General's responsibilities. These are wide ranging, but fall into three broad categories: food safety, public health, and consumer protection. It is part of the European Commission's drive towards making the range of initiatives undertaken on behalf of our citizens more readily accessible. I am personally committed to providing information on all of our activities in the most transparent manner possible.

The newsletter brings together into one publication our two paper publications, Prevention and Consumer Voice. In the past, Prevention dealt exclusively with health issues, and Consumer Voice, which began as a consumer-specific magazine, later expanded its brief to take on food safety issues as well as other topics of broader interest. I hope you will like the new integrated publication.

Published monthly, the new Consumer Voice will be available on our web site and will be sent to those of you who need it quickly in a text version by e-mail. It will be published in English, and within days, also in French and German. In contrast to the previous magazines that were published in a limited number of paper copies delivered by post, this will get to you more frequently and more speedily.

We do not plan to swamp you with large quantities of information in this newsletter, but to touch on and give background to our legislative, administrative, scientific and political decision-making. Links throughout will take you directly to our web site where you can access more in-depth information on any of the issues described.

A feature of Consumer Voice that was particularly appreciated was views from outside the Commission. We still want to hear what you think and, where we can, we will air them in the newsletter. So do please continue to share your views with us by post or by e-mail.