ECR Member of the European Parliament Anneleen Van Bossuyt has been elected chairman of the influential Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO).

Van Bossuyt said: “I am grateful and honoured to receive the support from my fellow colleagues on the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection. I will do my upmost to help further develop the European single market and continue our great work on consumer protection. Our single market is the cornerstone of European cooperation. It is in the interest of us all to build a strong and fair single market. Moreover, we now need to further unlock the opportunities of the digital world and build long term growth and deliver jobs.”

The position of IMCO chairman had been vacant since the British elections of early June. The former chairman Vicky Ford left the European Parliament to become a Member of the House of Commons. “It is an honour to succeed my ECR colleague Vicky Ford, who has been an excellent Committee Chair over the last two and a half years. She has defended the interests and prerogatives of both the IMCO committee and the ECR group over her term as chair and I will continue to do the same. ” We need legislation that stimulates innovation and entrepreneurship, and that doesn’t impose too many burdens on business. Legislativeproposals need to undergo a competitiveness test so that we understand the costs and benefits of the legislation put in front of us. We need to keep red tape for businesses to a minimum.”

Van Bossuyt continued: “As a Committee Chair of the European Parliament, I will work together with the relevant negotiating teams on Brexit to ensure we deliver a balanced deal, which will be beneficial both for Europe and the United Kingdom. Whether in or our outside the European Single Market, the UK will always be one of our most important trading partners.”

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Contact: Yannick Vanderveeren, +32473806446, yannick.vanderveeren@europarl.europa.eu

The ECR was created to take the EU in a new direction, according to the principles of our founding Prague Declaration. It is the third largest group in the European Parliament with 74 MEPs from 18 EU states.

For more information on the ECR, watch our promotional video at http://youtu.be/F5syQt1JuQI or visit our website: www.ecrgroup.eu