ANEC General Assembly

ANEC is governed by a General Assembly (ANEC/GA) which is open to membership of the countries of the European Union and EFTA, as well as the United Kingdom and candidate accession countries to the EU. The individual national member is nominated through a collective decision of the national consumer organisations in each country and acts as the interlocutor between them and ANEC. Each General Assembly serves a four-year term and ordinarily meets annually. The General Assembly meeting is presided over by the ANEC President, elected by the General Assembly from among its membership for a two-year term. The ANEC Secretary-General acts as its secretary.

ANEC Steering Committee

The strategic decisions of the General Assembly are implemented by a board known as the ANEC Steering Committee (ANEC/SC). Chaired by the ANEC President, the Steering Committee comprises up to nine members elected by the General Assembly from among its membership for a two-year term. The Steering Committee members elect the ANEC Vice-President and ANEC Treasurer, again for two-year terms. The Steering Committee meets up to four times each year and also works by correspondence.

ANEC Working Groups

Each field of priority in which ANEC operates, determined by the ANEC General Assembly and Steering Committee, has a Working Group (ANEC/WG) as its focus. Each WG has a Chair (appointed as an observer to the General Assembly) and Secretary (a Manager from the ANEC Secretariat). Its members are voluntary experts drawn from across the countries of the ANEC membership. Among other responsibilities, each WG is responsible for defining the priorities in its sector and for determining the positions of the ANEC representatives in the ESOs and similar organisations.

In 2020, the ANEC budget allows ANEC to operate in the following main areas of priority: Child Safety, Accessibility, Domestic Appliances (DOMAP), Sustainability (including chemicals), Digital Society, Services, Traffic & Mobility.

With BEUC, ANEC is active in a separately-funded project to represent the consumer interest in Implementing Measures for Ecodesign.

We also have an agreement with ECOS in representation of the consumer and environmental interest in ecodesign standardisation.

ANEC is a member of PROMPT, a project that aims to reduce the premature obsolescence of products.

The ANEC Secretariat acts as the hub of the association. Headed by the ANEC Secretary-General, it manages the activities of its actors at European (and sometimes international) level; supports the governance and technical bodies of the association and the members of those bodies, and leads on the representation of ANEC within the European institutions.