Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Implementation of the two joint political declarations on explanatory documents about Member States’ transposition of directives

The European Union cannot achieve its policy objectives unless EU law is implemented effectively. While Member States are responsible for transposing directives accurately and on time, it is the Commission’s role as Guardian of the Treaties to check that this is done. For this purpose, the information that Member States give the Commission must be clear and precise as has been underlined by the Court on several occasions.

To this end, in September 2011 the Member States and the Commission issued a Joint Political Declaration on explanatory documents. In October, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission issued a further Joint Political Declaration. These two declarations establish a new framework under which Member States provide supporting information about how they have transposed directives into their law. The second declaration calls on the Commission to report back to the European Parliament and to the Council by 1 November 2013.

This Report reviews the application of the declarations over the last two years.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)788: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:788:FIN

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