Meet Pinuccia Contino, Deputy to the Director for Consumers and Head of Unit for 'Product Safety and Rapid Alert System' at the European Commission. In this interview, she discusses her role in shaping consumer rights, the challenges and complexities of product safety globally, and her recent recognition with the Ross Koeser Achievement Award. Pinuccia shares her insights on the evolving landscape of consumer protection in the age of globalisation and digital innovation, reflecting on her journey from language policy to spearheading major initiatives in consumer rights at the international level.

Interviewed by Juliette Gill

You were recently awarded the Ross Koeser Achievement Award by the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organisation, in recognition of your contributions to this organisation. Congratulations! As the Deputy to the Director for Consumers and Head of the Unit 'Product Safety and Rapid Alert System' at the European Commission, a particular focus of yours is on the transnational and international relevance of consumers’ rights, could you tell us more on this aspect?

Yes absolutely, thank you very much for asking about the award. It was a total surprise for me, because this award is usually given to people who have been in the field of product safety and consumer protection for decades. In my case, it has “only” been 7 years. It was a great recognition of the action we are taking at the European level, to lead and to better protect our consumers. For me, the international level is a fundamental aspect of the policy, not just a nice, more glamourous bit. Just think, quite simply, that consumers face the same challenges everywhere in the world. The fundamental point, the basis of all consumer protection, is the asymmetry in the relationship between consumers and economic operators: consumers have less information on the product, the services, different aspects of the contract. Consumer protection exists to rebalance this asymmetry, which is a fact in our society and the functioning of our economy

There is another important element which comes with globalisation: the fact that supply chains have become completely mobile, they have no borders. Companies can source their products one day from one continent, and the following day from another continent. This has international relevance. If we take product safety in particular, with the explosion of e-commerce, it becomes challenging to see whether a product is safe or not when you don’t have it in your hands. It is also very important to talk not only about consumers but also about those who are tasked with protecting them, the responsible authorities in each country. They are tasked with assessing whether a product is safe or not, whether they have it or can only check it on a website.

All these elements make the international aspect even more relevant than before.

A fundamental aspect of my daily job is to bring the conversation to the international level, be it through bilateral agreements with other jurisdictions outside of the EU, or through cooperation in multilateral organisations. In particular, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is very active, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), an agency of the United Nations (UN). My team and I work a lot with these international counterparts so that we can bring our common challenges to common discussion fora and take action together.

The fundamental point, the basis of all consumer protection, is the asymmetry in the relationship between consumers and economic operators: consumers have less information on the product, the services, different aspects of the contract. Consumer protection exists to rebalance this asymmetry, which is a fact in our society and the functioning of our economy.

 

As we navigate through rapid digital innovation, could you explain the EU's actions to protect consumer rights, especially with the rise of AI-powered and online products?

At the European Commission we try to understand current challenges and future trends every day. For example, we were among the first ones in the world to understand that artificial intelligence, e-commerce, mental health issues were going to become very important and much bigger as far as consumer rights are concerned. This has been brought about by many different elements, starting with the Covid-19 pandemic. With this, issues of mental health became prominent. Everybody realised that health is not just about our body, but also our mind – we all knew this, but actually we didn’t realise it completely until the global pandemic, which brought it to everyone’s attention. This has also spurred a very deep reflection, with the help of experts and stakeholders in different Member States and at the international level, showing that issues of mental health have to be taken into account for consumer rights. The latest laws adopted at the EU level address this gap. If you take Artificial Intelligence (AI), we are the first jurisdiction in the world to come up with a law addressing its main challenges, covering fundamental rights and ethical aspects too. These new technologies are fantastic and very exciting, yet we also need to pay attention to certain aspects and risks which become more prominent. We try to anticipate what may happen, so that our laws, which take quite a long time to be discussed, decided upon and implemented, can cover the emergence of new, exciting and challenging phenomena. Who knows what will happen next year! We really do our best and we actively collaborate with excellent experts and stakeholders. We listen to all those who have a voice in this, and strive to give a voice to those who don’t.

We try to anticipate what may happen, so that our laws, which take quite a long time to be discussed, decided upon and implemented, can cover the emergence of new, exciting and challenging phenomena. Who knows what will happen next year!

Before working on consumers’ rights, you had a focus on languages and translation, and managed to achieve instrumental progress in the convergence of high-level translation qualifications across Europe. With the advancement of AI and digitalisation, translation is one of the sectors potentially endangered. How do you feel about the future of the profession?

Today I can no longer say that I am an expert in this field, as I left it almost ten years ago. Languages and intercultural communication in all its forms have always been a passion for me. By the way, when we look at the large language models that power ChatGPT for example, they are based on language. Languages are a key feature of humankind, unique to us, and they are at the front of most, if  not all, new technological developments. I don’t think this happens by chance or luck, rather it is because languages express a lot of our human characteristics. For this reason, I believe that linguistics professions will always exist, what will happen is they will evolve. It is very possible that translators and interpreters as we know them today will disappear. However, I don’t think that intercultural mediation will ever be left to machines. It is too innate to the human condition and too complex. Maybe in some science fiction scenarios we can imagine having an AI which is exactly like a human being, but I am not sure it will happen very soon. Until then, there is still a role and a bright future for language professions, possibly with new twists. For example, what’s happening in the field of translation is that more and more translation is automatised, but when you want really great quality, you still need to have a human revisor. You do not translate anymore like 20 years ago, with lots of dictionaries and a pen and paper, but the human factor continues to make a fundamental difference.

I believe that linguistics professions will always exist, what will happen is they will evolve. It is very possible that translators and interpreters as we know them today will disappear. However, I don’t think that intercultural mediation will ever be left to machines. It is too innate to the human condition and too complex.

You’ve become a Global Advocate for compassionate leadership, notably through your certification by the Centre for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University. Could you tell us about what compassionate leadership means to you and how you implement this in your daily life?

In a nutshell, compassionate leadership is leading with compassion, for compassion. When we talk about compassion, it is about noticing suffering and doing something to decrease that suffering. Compassion starts from us becoming aware of the suffering within ourselves, in the people around us, and in the world, and realising that we want to decrease that suffering. We all want to be happy, we all want to be free from suffering, to be able to enjoy life, doing what we like with the people we love. It seems like starting from a negative point, that of suffering, but actually it makes us feel closer together, more collaborative, more willing to help each other, more creative and innovative through this. This I see every day in my daily life, in my job, in my family: when we have a focus on compassion and we have chosen to do as much as possible to decrease the suffering in us and the people around us, what happens is like magic – don’t take me wrong, there are a lot of studies that demonstrate this. What happens is that we become focused on what we can improve, on the quality of relationships, on all the great, beautiful things we can create together to make the world a better place.

My experience after studying compassion at Stanford and with other very capable teachers, is that when we choose compassion it permeates every part of our life, it gives sense to everything. It connects with our personal purpose, which is different for every one of us and gives us the direction to the unique contribution that we can bring to the world. That for me is the definition of purpose. Just think about the people you know or yourself: purpose is always linked to doing something good. In order to do something good, generally one must solve problems, improve something, and these generally relates to some sort of suffering, even without realising it. So the compassion transformation has been happening for me and with my team in the last few years, because I have been involved in compassion since 2019, with the pandemic making us realise that we needed to decrease people’s suffering, because everybody was suffering so much. There were all these problems and issues coming up everywhere because the whole world was suffering due to the consequences of the pandemic. And compassion is not an individual quest, it is contagious, when you start people see its power and are encouraged in this direction, they become legitimate if they do the same, they are not afraid to show up as compassionate beings anymore.

This multiplies, creating an energy and a dynamic that really produces miracles, which I have seen at policy level, in my team, in my department, in the whole organisation, where compassion is being revealed more and more. This makes me highly optimistic for the future, because by doing this we are improving the chances of all humankind to be happier. I guess we can all agree that this world needs more happiness.

Having been Secretary General for WIL Europe for 16 years , what have you observed in the evolution of the network over the years?

I consider myself very privileged and fortunate to have been able to be there from even before the birth of WIL, from its conception. This was when it was just a few of us with Thaima, who has always been a great source of inspiration and a great leader for us. This began with several others, who have changed along the years, alongside many great women who have joined afterwards, adding their talent, their vision and their passion to what the network is doing. Like in every organisation, the first times are those of pioneers, where you are building a vision and still don’t know exactly how, but you know that you want to bring something bigger and better, in our case to active women in society. This has been our focus from the beginning. In particular I remember that we started with technologies, bringing more women into more technological studies and jobs. From there we expanded, because we realised that what was missing was a network where women could connect and exchange on their daily challenges, on their job issues, on combining career and family,  and so on. We wanted to create a network of women who are giving their best to society as professionals, as citizens, as complete human beings. I really like the fact that our network is not limited to gender equality issues. We support gender equality by promoting the talents, the competence, the creativity and the innovation brought to the world by our members They each have a different, marvellous story, and can share this to reinforce the solidarity and the support that we can offer to each other, all while leading the way for the younger talents coming up through the professional pipeline. It is also about showing what women can do for society, which can still sometimes be overlooked.

We wanted to create a network of women who are giving their best to society as professionals, as citizens, as complete human beings. I really like the fact that our network is not limited to gender equality issues. We support gender equality by promoting the talents, the competence, the creativity and the innovation brought to the world by our members.

You studied Politics and International Relations at university, a field of academia in which more and more young girls are choosing to specialise. Could you share some advice for young women undertaking studies in Politics and International Relations? What was it like to enter that sector upon completion of your studies?

I will certainly not be impartial in answering this question, because Politics and International Relations is really my passion, and it has been for a long time. It is not my only passion, but it is definitely one of the strongest ones. I can only encourage young women who feel like getting into this field to do so because it is marvellous, it opens up so many perspectives and offers so many different angles to act! In order to be able to give our contribution to this field, we need to understand history, politics, law, philosophy, economics, we need to speak more languages. We need to have a special interest in people, and in people who are different from us. To do Politics and International Relations, you need to work with people who come from different backgrounds, different countries, with different cultures, languages, habits. So this field is something that opens up a lot our hearts and minds to be able to connect with so many different people. It’s a beautiful passion, almost a mission, a calling, for me.

It is certainly more complicated today to find one’s own way compared to when I started my career thirty-three years ago, not only in Politics and International Relations but also in other fields. The world currently changes at a much quicker pace. In my younger years the world seemed tofunction in more predictable ways, so at the beginning of our studies we would choose where we wanted to go, what we wanted to do. Personally, I fell in love with the idea of Europe as an antidote to war and an agent for peace when I was eleven. Today things change a lot in a reduced time-span. Young people are the object of many solicitations every day, almost every minute, through social media, through so many different channels that we didn’t have at that time. This also means that finding one’s own path has become more blurred, more complicated. There is not one or two or three main avenues, actually you can do Politics and International Relations in so many different fields and jobs. So I think what is essential, and what I really recommend to every young woman who wants to do this, is to know who you are, to understand what your talents, your gifts, your desires and your purpose is. Think what you want to bring to the world through this particular angle, and then explore. You probably won’t find your answer with your first job or first traineeship. That’s not a problem, actually it’s great because you are going to be able to taste different fruits so to speak, and then to choose the one you really want. So I would say be open, be brave, be creative, and don’t worry if you’re not completely settled when you’re twenty-five. This happened to me. But today I think that would be almost impossible, and in today’s world it’s better like this. You are allowed to be young for longer, you can keep exploring and reinventing what is happening to you, provided you know who you are. If you stick to that, you are authentic, you respect who you are and you don’t put any false limit or boundary on your wishes.

I can only encourage young women who feel like getting into this field to do so because it is marvellous, it opens up so many perspectives and offers so many different angles to act. In order to be able to give our contribution to this field, we need to understand history, politics, law, philosophy, economics, we need to speak more languages. We need to have a special interest in people, and in people who are different from us.