Grote verschillen tussen lidstaten in doorvoering EU-regels interne markt (en)

Member States are still failing to implement many EU Internal Market laws correctly and on time. According to the latest figures released by the European Commission, 131 Directives (around 8.5% of Internal Market Directives) have still not been implemented into national law in every Member State, though the deadlines agreed by the Member States themselves when they adopted the Directives have passed. Some Member States, notably Denmark, Spain, Finland and the UK, have organised themselves to ensure that they have a generally good record of implementing Directives on time. Those four countries have again achieved the target set by the European Council of keeping their implementation deficit below 1.5 %. Ireland now also meets the 1.5 % target after more than halving its deficit since May 2003. However, others, such as France, Germany, Luxembourg, Greece and Italy, have persistently had a deficit of more than double the target. Belgium, whose implementation deficit has almost doubled since May 2003, has joined this group of Member States which is lagging behind. It now has over ten times the number of Directives overdue as the best performer, Denmark. Big disparities also exist in the number of infringement procedures against Member States for misapplication of Internal Market rules. For example, Italy alone has almost as many infringement cases against it as Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg and Portugal combined. The number of cases open against France is more than double that against the UK. The Commission will issue an updated set of figures in its next "Internal Market Scoreboard" in July.

Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein said: "It is disappointing that some Member States appear to consider that it is acceptable to regularly implement Directives late and to incorrectly apply commonly agreed rules. This is unfair to those Member States that do get laws on to their statute books on time and then apply them properly. It gives rise to a real opportunity cost and so harms the competitiveness of the EU economy. With enlargement imminent, it is important that Member States, both current and new, respect their obligations to implement and apply commonly agreed rules, as the costs of fragmentation will increase significantly in an enlarged EU. It is time Ministers took personal responsibility for their Member State's performance. Ireland's halving of its implementation deficit in only eight months shows what can be done when there is political will and commitment. I also congratulate Denmark and Spain for having improved on their already relatively good records, giving them the best overall performance. Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Greece and Italy simply need to do a lot better."

Implementation deficits by Member State

The average implementation deficit per Member State - the percentage of the total number of Internal Market Directives in force that has not been written into national law by the legal deadline is 2.3%, only a marginal improvement on the May 2003 figure of 2.4%.

Of those countries that currently meet the 1.5% target set by the European Council for the percentage of Directives not implemented into national law by the legal deadline:

• Denmark and Spain now have implementation deficits of only 0.3% and 0.9% respectively

• Ireland has made giant strides in more than halving its implementation deficit, to 1.4%, since May 2003

• Finland and the UK also just managed to meet the target, but have room for further improvement.

Of the Member States that did not meet the 1.5% target:

• while Sweden just missed the target, its performance is its worst since 1999

• Portugal, Austria and to a lesser extent Italy have made some progress towards reducing their deficits, although Italy's is still double the 1.5% target

• the deficits of Belgium and the Netherlands have got considerably worse recently, in Belgium's case almost doubling since May 2003

• France, Germany, Luxembourg and Greece continue to be among the worst performers and, with the exception of Greece, their deficits have got worse since May 2003.

Member State implementation deficits as at 30 November 2003:

'	BE	FR	DE	LU	EL	IT	NL	AT	PT	SE	UK	IE	FI	ES	DK
percentage	3.5	3.5	3.5	3.4	3.1	3.0	2.6	2.5	2.2	1.6	1.4	1.4	1.4	0.9	0.3
number of Directives overdue	54	54	53	52	48	46	40	38	33	25	22	21	21	14	5

Examples of EU laws not implemented

Among the several Directives which should have been implemented more than a year ago, but which still, in several Member States have not been written into national law are: Directive 2001/19 on the recognition of professional qualifications (not implemented in Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Austria or the UK), Directive 2001/29 on copyright and related rights in the information society (Belgium, Spain, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Sweden) and Directive 98/44 on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden).

Directives more than two years overdue

Only three Member States (Denmark, Finland and Portugal) met the 'zero tolerance' target set by the European Council for Directives which have still not been implemented into national law two years after the legal deadline agreed when the Directives were adopted.

Given the amount of time it takes to negotiate and adopt EU laws in the first place, such lengthy delays in putting Directives into effect cause enormous harm to businesses and to citizens, who are deprived of their rights to benefit in full from the Internal Market.

Number of overdue directives with a deadline for implementation into national law before 31 October 2001 that have not been implemented by 30 November 2003:

LU	FR	BE	DE	IE	AT	ES	IT	UK	EL	NL	SE	DK	FI	PT
8	7	5	4	3	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	0	0	0

Infringements

France and Italy together account for 28% of Internal Market infringement cases, more than Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Portugal, Ireland and the Netherlands combined.

Open infringement cases as at 31st October 2003:

IT	FR	ES	DE	BE	EL	UK	AT	NL	IE	PT	LU	SE	FI	DK
146	135	102	90	81	75	58	57	54	54	44	38	26	25	21

In the Internal Market Strategy 2003-2006 (see IP/03/645), the Commission called on Member States to reduce the number of infringement cases by at least 50% by 2006. Given the disproportionately large number of infringement cases outstanding against them, serious improvements by France and Italy in particular, and also by Spain, Germany, Belgium and Greece, would contribute significantly to meeting this target.

Benefits of the Internal Market and the importance of implementation

The Internal Market plays a key role in achieving the EU's objective of becoming the most dynamic economy in the world by 2010. It is estimated to have created 2.5 million jobs and € 877 billion in extra prosperity since the EU's internal frontiers were effectively removed in 1993 (see IP/03/7 and MEMO/03/2). It gives EU citizens a wider choice of quality goods and services, greater freedom to travel, work, study and live in other EU countries. It makes for a more efficient allocation of resources and offers greater trading opportunities to our companies. But the Internal Market can only achieve its full potential if legislation agreed at European level is effectively implemented and applied by all Member States.