Monique Goyens

Monique Goyens (* 1959 in Eupen , according to other sources: Verviers , Belgium ) is a Belgian lawyer. Since 2007 she has been Director of the European Consumer Association (BEUC) in Brussels, whose members are associations from 31 European countries. In 2016, Politico magazine ranked her 9th among the 30 most influential women in EU institutions and organizations.

Life

Monique Goyens is the daughter of an officer. She studied law at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) , from which she graduated in 1982 with a licentiate in law . She then worked as a research assistant at the Center for Consumer Law at UCL. She first came to the European Consumers Association in 1989 as a senior consultant, but moved back to UCL as a project manager in 1994 for family reasons. Since 1997 she has been Secretary General of the Commission Universitaire pour le Développement in Brussels, an initiative of the Belgian Ministry of Development and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cooperate with universities in French-speaking developing countries . She took over the position of director of the BEUC in 2007.

Goyens is the mother of three children.

Positions

Goyens speaks regularly for BEUC on numerous consumer-related topics in the EU. In the course of the euro crisis in 2011, she called for more consideration for consumer rights in the financial sector and made a lack of consumer protection jointly responsible for the real estate bubble. As part of the negotiations on the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TTIP), she criticized their lack of transparency, which led to conspiracy theories , and spoke out against the planned out-of-court arbitration. In 2018 she criticized the result of the copyright reform , which once again failed to bring copyright into the 21st century. In 2019 she spoke out in favor of the Nutri-Score food label and welcomed the judgment of the European Court of Justice on Facebook “Like” buttons on third-party websites.

Web links

Lorraine Mallinder: Consumer angel. (Portrait). In: politico.eu. February 13, 2008, accessed October 2, 2019 .

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Peter Riesbeck: Advocate of transparency . In: Berliner Zeitung . Berlin February 25, 2014, p. 1 .
↑ ^a ^b Monique Goyens . In: Knack Magazine . November 2, 2016, p. 39 (?) .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Lorraine Mallinder: Consumer angel. In: politico.eu. February 13, 2008, accessed October 2, 2019 .
↑ Frank Schirrmacher (Ed.): Technological Totalitarism: A Debate . Suhrkamp, 2015, ISBN 978-3-518-74118-4 , p. 208 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
↑ MONIQUE GOYENS. In: politico.eu. October 7, 2016, accessed October 3, 2019 .
↑ Ruth Reichstein: "The banks simply overdo it" The EU must create new rules for lending, says consumer advocate Monique Goyens. Self-regulation does not work . In: taz, the daily newspaper . Berlin December 22, 2011, p. 4 : “Not much has changed since the beginning of the crisis. Too often decisions in Brussels are all about the financial sector and national budgets. Politicians are actually forgetting that it was the lack of consumer protection that helped trigger the crisis. The real estate bubble has thrown the global financial system off balance. Consumer protection must move back into the focus of politicians. "
↑ Peter Riesbeck: EU and USA are negotiating a free trade agreement - but there is not only approval for unlimited movement of goods . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . Cologne February 14, 2014, p. 2 : "Secrecy leads to conspiracy theories," says consumer advocate Monique Goyens. This also applies to the debate about international arbitration tribunals. [...] Consumer advocate Monique Goyens, however, has fundamental concerns: "The legal culture in the USA and the EU is so high - we do not need any extra-state arbitration courts."
^ Donal O'Donovan: Technology giants face payouts to media firms in EU copyright battle . In: Irish Independent . September 13, 2018, p. 2 (English): “It is beyond comprehension that time and again EU policy makers refuse to bring copyright law into the 21st century. Consumers nowadays express themselves by sampling, creating and mixing music, videos and pictures, then sharing their creations online ”
↑ Pauline Constant: Consumer groups launch petition for EU-wide simplified nutrition label . (Press Release). Ed .: The European Consumer Association. BEUC-PR-2019-017, May 20, 2019 (English, PDF on beuc.eu ).
↑ Natasha Bernal: Use of Facebook's 'like' button must come with warning . In: The Daily Telegraph . London July 30th 2019, p. 31 (English): "The decision therefore underlines the right for internet users to always get information on what data are collected and how they are used by websites."

personal data
SURNAME	Goyens, Monique
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Belgian lawyer, director of the European Consumers Association
DATE OF BIRTH	1959
PLACE OF BIRTH	Eupen , according to other sources: Verviers , Belgium

[:0-1] A ^b Peter Riesbeck: Advocate of transparency . In: Berliner Zeitung . Berlin February 25, 2014, p. 1 .

[:1-2] Monique Goyens . In: Knack Magazine . November 2, 2016, p. 39 (?) .

[:2-3] Lorraine Mallinder: Consumer angel. In: politico.eu. February 13, 2008, accessed October 2, 2019 .

[4] Frank Schirrmacher (Ed.): Technological Totalitarism: A Debate . Suhrkamp, 2015, ISBN 978-3-518-74118-4 , p. 208 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[5] MONIQUE GOYENS. In: politico.eu. October 7, 2016, accessed October 3, 2019 .

[6] Ruth Reichstein: "The banks simply overdo it" The EU must create new rules for lending, says consumer advocate Monique Goyens. Self-regulation does not work . In: taz, the daily newspaper . Berlin December 22, 2011, p. 4 : “Not much has changed since the beginning of the crisis. Too often decisions in Brussels are all about the financial sector and national budgets. Politicians are actually forgetting that it was the lack of consumer protection that helped trigger the crisis. The real estate bubble has thrown the global financial system off balance. Consumer protection must move back into the focus of politicians. "

[7] Peter Riesbeck: EU and USA are negotiating a free trade agreement - but there is not only approval for unlimited movement of goods . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . Cologne February 14, 2014, p. 2 : "Secrecy leads to conspiracy theories," says consumer advocate Monique Goyens. This also applies to the debate about international arbitration tribunals. [...] Consumer advocate Monique Goyens, however, has fundamental concerns: "The legal culture in the USA and the EU is so high - we do not need any extra-state arbitration courts."

[8] Donal O'Donovan: Technology giants face payouts to media firms in EU copyright battle . In: Irish Independent . September 13, 2018, p. 2 (English): “It is beyond comprehension that time and again EU policy makers refuse to bring copyright law into the 21st century. Consumers nowadays express themselves by sampling, creating and mixing music, videos and pictures, then sharing their creations online ”

[9] Pauline Constant: Consumer groups launch petition for EU-wide simplified nutrition label . (Press Release). Ed .: The European Consumer Association. BEUC-PR-2019-017, May 20, 2019 (English, PDF on beuc.eu ).

[10] Natasha Bernal: Use of Facebook's 'like' button must come with warning . In: The Daily Telegraph . London July 30th 2019, p. 31 (English): "The decision therefore underlines the right for internet users to always get information on what data are collected and how they are used by websites."