The Early Years of the European Consumer Organisation BEUC, 1962-1985

The Bureau européen des unions de consommateurs (BEUC) is the umbrella organisation that represents the European consumer organisations in Brussels and has done so since its foundation in 1962. It lobbies with the EU institutions to defend the interests of European consumers. In this paper I reconstruct the evolution of BEUC during the first two decades of its existence, from a small and loosely organised alliance of European consumer organisations to a well-established organisation with its own office in Brussels and a clear impact on EEC policy.

Based on archival research, I recount the early history of BEUC by dividing it into five stages of development: birth and infancy (1962-68), childhood (1969-73), adolescence (1974-77), early adulthood (1978-82) and adulthood (1983-85 and beyond). For each phase I discuss the organisational developments within BEUC, the development of its activities and interactions with EEC institutions.