Political adviserRuth Stenersen, The Norwegian Ministry of Children and Family Affairs

Opening of the Nordic-Baltic Seminar on "Consumer Education in the Baltic"

Riga 19. January 2004

As you may have noted, our Ministry is responsible for the Norwegian participation in the Committee of Senior Officials on Consumer Affairs under the Nordic Council of Ministers. We cooperate with the Consumer Council and the University College of Hedmark in implementing this project. A project, as I understand, that is planned in a near cooperation with the representatives for each of your countries.

I want to start with a personal remark. It is the first time I have the opportunity to visit a Baltic state. I used yesterday to look around in Riga, and not only the well-preserved old city. This city of today has undergone considerable changes compared to the pictures I saw many years ago, when I went to school. I have also heard from other Norwegians, who have visited Lithuania, Latvia and Estland, that they are all surprised and impressed by the rapid development your countries are undergoing since the independency. More people from the Nordic countries should visit the Baltic, not only to see the important historical places, but also to see for themselves the modern nations we now have as our nearest neighbours, and to reflect on the hard work that has been done to get this modernisation started and realised.

The project on the agenda today came as a result of the Nordic Ministerial Council’s programme for adjacent relation building. The cooperation has been successful, and more than fulfils the targets we have developed jointly. No doubt, the main reason is the well-educated and hard working professionals we meet in all our relations in your countries. The reality is that our Nordic cooperation has got new members - also at a personal level.

The question is now what we can learn from each other, not only what you can learn from the Nordic experiences. One-way communication has been replaced by dialogue. On the European level our countries have a similar type of dialogue, and similar processes in relation to Brussels. Nothing is like it used to be. And we all have to adapt to the changes.

The topic of consumer education will certainly be developed during this seminar. I would, however, like to devote some thought to a topic and a dilemma linked to consumption in our societies, which must be addressed in our consumer education policy as well as in our general policy as concerns consumer and welfare issues. Among all advantages of increased welfare and an ever-increasing access to goods and services, we should not ignore some negative aspects following from the commercialisation and the commercial pressure.

Recent research indicates that material needs do not saturate at a certain level of consumption. Instead, parallel to growing prosperity, even more people feel that they have unfulfilled material needs. New expectations and new demands are developed at a speed that surpasses the increase in wealth. There seems to be a significant movement over time in our individual attitudes, towards a more materialistic mood. Especially young people, and boys in particular, are more strongly preoccupied with acquisitions and material consumption. This indicates that growing wealth, and to grow up in a secure environment, does not, as one should expect, stimulate young peoples interests for other values than the material ones. Advertising, I think, is one of the driving forces behind this trend.

Economic growth gives us prosperity; the chance to buy a new TV-set, a car of the latest model, and more vacations to distant destinations. Most of us would think that more material wealth makes us more content with our lives, happier. Of course, increased consumtion means increased welfare, but perhaps only up to a certain level. We have indications, based on surveys from different countries, that when a certain level of consumption is reached, more material goods do not give the citizens on average more “satisfaction”. This should be seen in connection with what we know of ecological and environmental limits to economic growth.

Therefore, it is in my opinion important to keep up a debate on the consequences of rising material consumption, and of the described development of a still more materialistic value-orientation. It seems for me obvious, for example, that increasing materialism weakens the possibilities for a sustainable development, and for a more equal distribution of the resources.

I find it important to address these questions from a consumer-policy point of view. There is a huge challenge giving the young generation opportunity to take a stand in these questions. I think you are all familiar with the Nordic “proposal for objectives in consumer education”. Here “Commercial pressure” is one of the 6 key areas for action. Let me quote a few lines:

“We know that young people are subjected to an intensive bombardment of images, a large proportion of which has a commercial purpose. Advertising often plays on feelings of insecurity that teenagers have. Beauty, confidence, companionship and happiness are sold in the form of clothes, shoes, beauty care products, and other items. It is easy for parents and young people to become squeezed between the demands of the ‘market’ and the financial realities of the family.”

The same concerns are the background for the Norway Action plan to reduce commercial pressure on children and the young people, which was launched in April last year. Our strategy has, as you can see in our English translation, three main elements:

the first is to start a constructive dialogue with advertisers, the advertising business, the media and relevant organisations – with a view to initiate debate, influence attitudes and promote guidelines as regards influence on minors,

the second is to develop educational material and promote information and education aimed at children and youngsters about consumption, and about the ideals inherent in advertising, and about the intended and actual effects of advertising,

and the third element is to consider appropriate legislative measures to reduce commercial pressure.

Under the information and education part of our plan, we have listed several actions and aims:

to strengthen consumer education in teacher training,

to up-grade courses for teachers. This happens to be exactly the same theme that you are discussing at this working seminar – and, I guess, this is also one reason why I am invited to come here.

Further, following our action plan, we want to develop and coordinate material and textbooks for schools,

to elaborate information and discussion scheme for parents,

to initiate a debate about value-questions in schools and kindergartens, and

to further develop consumer education in primary and upper secondary school. As I just mentioned, to reduce commercial pressure is just one, though a very important one, of the 6 objectives for consumer education in the Nordic Cooperation. Our heavy focus on commercial pressure, however, is also strengthening consumer education in general in Norway.

The last item under the education heading in our national action plan is, logically, to stimulate and contribute to international cooperation in this field. Our minister already has taken initiatives; in the Nordic Council of Ministers, and at the EU meeting for Consumer Minister last December in Rome. We also see the Norwegian contribution to the EU Consumer Citizenship projects as a part of this strategy. And I am very pleased to hear that all the Baltic countries are taking an active part in these projects.

These are reflections on rather recent issues of consumer policy. They are, hopefully, illustrating that consumer policy is a dynamic issue, strongly linked to developments in society on the whole. This is one reason that consumerism is such an exciting policy area.

Consumer education is one exciting element in this – for several reasons. One is that it is aimed at children and the upcoming generation of consumers, another that it always will reflect the current important consumer policy issues.

These are some of the reasons that I am glad to be here in Riga, and in this conference today. Also the well-composed programme for these days makes me sure that we all will have an interesting working session.

Thank you very much for your attention, and good luck !