NATIONAL CONSUMER ORGANISATIONS WITHIN THE EEA
There are many consumer organisations in Europe of different size, background and capacity, according to a country’s history and the conditions found there.
The European Commission, in particular, DG-Health and Consumers, has a website where you can find information on all the respective national consumer organisations in each country profile currently available. (read more)
These country profiles contain, in addition to the list of national consumer organisations at national level, information on:

criteria which define what a consumer organisation is at national level
public funding of consumer organisations
fora or bodies which bring together consumer organisations and public authorities
national policies related to consumer organisation

ANEC

ANEC is the European consumer voice in standardisation, representing and defending consumer interests in the process of standardisation, conformity assessment and related legislation.

ANEC was set up in 1995 as an international non-profit association under Belgian law. They represent consumer organisations from the European Union Member States and the EFTA countries. Their General Assembly is composed of one national member per country, nominated jointly by the national consumer organisations in their country. The European Commission and EFTA fund ANEC, while national consumer organisations contribute in kind.

The Brussels based Secretariat co-ordinates a network of more than 200 consumer representatives across Europe. Their experts contribute directly to the work of over 80 Technical Committees, Working Groups and political bodies of the European and international standards organisations

BEUC – The European Consumers’ Organisation
BEUC was created on 6 March 1962 by the consumer organisations of Belgium, Luxembourg, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. After working together for a number of years, these organisations decided to create a European association, based in Brussels, right at the heart of Community policy.

BEUC was one of the first lobbying organisations to set up base in the European capital in a bid to influence the decision-making process. BEUC receives funding from its members in addition to a grant from the European Union. This enables BEUC to continue the task they have been pursuing for the past 46 years, of promoting basic consumers rights. These are the rights to:

Safety
Information
Choice
Representation
Redress
Education
Satisfaction of basic needs
A clean environment

BEUC’s membership has grown, and in 2008 their members include 41 well respected, independent national consumer organisations from some thirty European countries (EU, EEA and applicant countries).

BEUC investigates all European Union decisions, programmes and developments liable to affect consumers. BEUC promotes the development of a Single Market that truly works in the interests of consumers. BEUC takes the view that the relationship between consumers and suppliers of goods and services should be based on fairness and should strive to create the right conditions for consumers to make independent decisions.

TRACE is a series of interactive training courses designed to help build the capacity of European consumer organisations. The TRACE programme is fully funded from the EU budget and it is open to consumer organisations in the EU, candidate countries and the EEA countries (BEUC and non BEUC members)

COFACE - Confederation of Family Organizations in the European Community
COFACE is a pluralistic organisation which aims at promoting family policy, solidarity between generations and the interests of children within the European Union. It defines family policy in Europe as being the family dimension of policies, programmes and initiatives developed at European Union level.

COFACE was originally founded in 1958 as the European Action Committee of the International Union of Family Organizations (IUFO). Over time, it gained more independence, and in 1979 turned itself into an international not-for-profit voluntary organization with the name Confederation of Family Organizations in the European Community, now the European Union.

COFACE links together general and single-issue national family organizations. It currently has 56 member organizations across 20 Member States. As such, it gives a voice to many millions of parents and children.
COFACE's activities have helped shape European policy in areas like protecting consumer interests, social protection, tackling social exclusion and discrimination, programmes for assistance to people with disabilities, health promotion and education. As a result, family and child policy is gradually spreading across all areas of EU activity. COFACE means to keep working to see that this continues.

EUROCOOP – European Community of Consumer Cooperatives
EURO COOP is the European Community of consumer co-operatives. Its members are the national organisations of consumer co-operatives in 18 European countries. EURO COOP today represents over 3 300 local and regional consumer co-operatives, whose members amount to more than 22 million consumers across Europe. Its General Secretariat is based in Brussels, home of the European Union institutions
Founded in 1957, Euro Coop, as the first consumer organisation in Europe, has made its expertise available to the European institutions for the promotion of consumer interests. It has developed close and privileged relations with, in particular, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee. An important part of Euro Coop's activity is the representation of consumers within the numerous advisory committees set up by the European Commission, and in particular the European Consumer Consultative Group (ECCG-DG Sanco).

TACD - The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue

The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) is a forum of US and EU consumer organisations which develops joint consumer policy recommendations to the US government and the European Commission to promote consumer interest in EU and US policy making and in global issues. So far, a total of 40 European and 24 US consumer organisations have joined the initiative founded in 1998. The Commission provides financial and coordination support for the TACD.
The TACD conferences take place once a year, alternately in the US and the EU. These conferences produce recommendations related to food, electronic commerce, trade, health and intellectual property issues. The recommendations call for a number of actions from the EU governments, the European Commission and the US authorities, and aim at increasing the involvement of civil society in transatlantic policy-making.

The TACD is organised by Consumers International which provides the TACD Secretariat.