IP/07/126

Brussels, 1^st February 2007

Internal Market Scoreboard: Best result ever

Member States have never performed better in implementing agreed Internal Market rules into national law, according to the European Commission’s latest Internal Market Scoreboard. On average only 1.2% of Internal Market Directives for which the implementation deadline has passed are not currently written into national law, down from 1.9% in July 2006 (IP/06/1008). This means that for the first time the average deficit is below the 1.5% interim target agreed by Heads of State in 2001. All Member States have made progress, with 21 Member States either below or very close to the 1.5% target. This is due in large part to Member States' continued efforts to implement and exchange best practices, as set out in a 2004 Commission Recommendation. Nevertheless, Member States too often fail to transpose and apply Internal Market rules correctly: only eight Member States have managed to reduce the number of infringement proceedings against them. The full text of the latest Internal Market Scoreboard is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/score/index_en.htm

Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said: "I congratulate all Member States on this excellent result. It's great news for Europe's consumers and businesses, and shows that Member States really can deliver on time if the will is there. I encourage them now to push on to the real target – of zero deficit – and to make sure they apply the rules they have signed up to correctly and fairly."

Implementation of Internal Market Directives

• At 1.2%, the average transposition deficit - the percentage of Internal Market Directives that have not been implemented into national law in time - for the 25 Member States is well below the interim target of 1.5% and is lower than it has ever been before.
• All Member States, without exception, have reduced their backlog.
• 19 Member States are below or have reached the 1.5% target, while two Member States (Belgium and the Czech Republic) are only one directive short of reaching it;
• Only four Member States are well above the 1.5% target – Portugal and Greece, whose deficits are about double the average EU deficit, and Luxembourg and Italy, whose performance is still poor but which have made very good progress over the past six months.
• Denmark and Lithuania share the first place: they are five directives away from a 0% deficit.
• Whilst all MS have made progress, Italy, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic have made by far the most progress.
• Looking at the directives to be transposed in the next six months, Luxembourg, Belgium and Cyprus seem to be best prepared: they have already transposed a large number of those Directives. However, despite their still very substantial transposition deficit, Portugal and Italy are yet to undertake significant action with regard to these Directives.
• These excellent overall results are due in large part to Member States' continued efforts to implement the 2004 Recommendation on transposition of Internal Market Directives, which provided a 'toolbox' of best practices in Member States and recommended to the other Member States to implement similar arrangements.

Infringements

• The incorrect transposition and application of Internal Market rules remains a problem. Italy has more than three times the 'average' amount of infringement proceedings for incorrect transposition or incorrect application of Internal Market rules. Spain, France, Greece, Germany, Portugal and Belgium are also high above the average.
• Among the EU-10 Member States, the substantial increase in infringement proceedings over the last year against Poland is an alarming development. Poland has now more than twice the average number of infringements of the new Member States.
• If broken down by sector, infringements relating to the environment, transport and energy, and taxation and customs union, account for almost half of all infringement cases.
• Among the EU-15 Member States, Luxembourg and Denmark go the furthest in trying to resolve infringement proceedings quickly. Greece and Portugal also resolve infringement proceedings quickly, but both have a much higher number of infringement cases than Luxembourg and Denmark.

Benefits of the Internal Market and the importance of implementation

The Internal Market plays a key role in achieving the EU's objective of creating more growth and jobs. It has created millions of jobs and billions of euros in prosperity. It gives EU citizens a wider choice of quality goods and services and greater freedom to travel, work, study and live in other EU countries, while making for a more efficient allocation of resources and offering greater trading opportunities to businesses. 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.

Annex

Internal Market Scoreboard 15 bis:

Transposition and application of Internal Market rules (details)

Transposition

EU-25 Member State transposition deficit, as at 11/11/2006 – 1634 directives

EU-25 Member State performance in meeting 0% target for Directives whose transposition is over 2 years late, as at 11/11/2006

2004 Transposition Recommendation

EU-25 Member State average number of implemented recommendations, as at 11/11/2006

Infringement cases

EU-25 Member State number of open infringement proceedings, as at 1/11/2006