European Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kouneva launched on November 19 2008 the first-ever European Masters in Consumer Affairs, the European Commission said in a media statement.

The masters degree will be an EU-backed degree programme, offered in 13 European cities across nine member states: Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and UK.

"The aim is to introduce professional training in consumer affairs, so that trained professionals can be brought on to the job market to drive forward consumer issues in business, in policy-making and within consumer organisations themselves," the media statement said.

A European professional qualification in this domain did not yet exist and this new University Masters degree aimed to fill the gap, the statement said.

The curricula will include consumer protection law, analysis of consumer behaviour and psychology, economics, marketing, consumer-oriented technology and/or sustainable consumption.

"Businesses, governments and consumer organisations have already indicated an interest in hiring such trained professionals," the statement said.

The EC has been active in helping to create these courses and is backing them financially.

Launching the programme at the University de Haute Alsace in Colmar (France), Kouneva said: "Looking at current events, such as the financial turmoil and rising prices, we cannot overstate the importance of protecting and promoting consumers' rights and interests.

"I am therefore particularly pleased that consumer empowerment is now firmly a part of university training in Europe".

The universities involved are divided into three consortia, with a different subject focus for each.

The first group, where subjects include marketing/management, consumer-oriented technology; sustainable consumption; food and nutrition; consumer studies; and supply
chain development, includes the *Technical University of Munich (Germany), Aarhus University (Denmark), Wageningen University (Netherlands) and the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (Poland).

The second group, where subjects include consumer behaviour; legal issues; relationship of enterprises and consumers, is the University of Haute Alsace in Mulhouse (France), Institut Catholique des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (ICHEC) in Brussels (Belgium), Academy of Economic Studies in Bucarest (Romania) and Karol Adamiecki University of Economics in Katowice (Poland).

The third group, where subjects include economics, marketing, law and psychology, is the University of Barcelona (Spain), Universite de Montpellier (France), University of Bologna (Italy), University of West Timisoara (Romania) and Brunel University (UK)

The new Masters courses will begin in autumn 2009 (the 2009/10 academic year). Students can apply to take part in these courses directly through the university in question, as with any other course, the EC media statement said.

Each of the 13 universities will get EU funding of 50 000 euro a year over three years to prepare and run the courses. The EU will also fund 260 student grants of up to 3000 euro each, to a total of 780 000 euro.