European Commissioner for Consumer Protection Meglena Kuneva and Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov officially opened on February 4 the European Consumer Centre (ECC) in Bulgaria, integrating the country into the European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net).

A similar centre is scheduled to be opened on February 5 in Romania, which joined the European Union together with Bulgaria in January 2007, as well.

The ECC will take in complaints by Bulgarian citizens who acquired goods and services either in Bulgaria or in any other EU member state. This way Bulgarian citizens will be able to claim their customer rights not only for products bought on the Bulgarian market, but for products bought on the common European market as well. The Bulgarian ECC will co-ordinate its actions with the ECC of the country from which the product was bought in order to receive its cooperation for solving the consumer claims.

The Bulgarian ECC will also receive complaints from similar institutions from other EU member states, submitted by citizens who bought goods or used services in Bulgaria, and will also cooperate on solving consumer claims.

Another activity of Bulgaria's ECC would be issuing brochures and different educational materials to inform citizens of their rights as consumers of goods and services on the common European market, Focus news agency said. The ECC will also offer consultancy services to consumers on their rights and on the actions they need to take in case they bought defective goods or received with low-quality services.

The ECC opening allows Bulgaria to join the common efforts of the EU to assist its citizens in the field of cross-border shopping. The idea is that EU citizens be able to take advantage of the best purchasing deals EU offers both when shopping in their home countries and abroad. Founded in in 2005, ECC-Net comprises all EU member states plus Iceland and Norway.