3-4 October Internal Market Informal

Date: 09/10/1997

THE Luxembourg government told internal market ministers meeting informally in Echternach that it would use the remaining months of its EU presidency to press ahead with four key areas of the single market. Georges Wohlfart, secretary of state at the foreign ministry, confirmed that priority was being given to securing agreement on a European Company Statute and to reaching a common stance among governments on patent legislation for biotechnological inventions. Luxembourg will also focus on gas liberalisation at a special meeting of Union energy ministers scheduled for 27 October and on ensuring that single market legislation is correctly implemented.

INTERNAL Market Commissioner Mario Monti briefed ministers on the progress made by member states in meeting the targets set out in the June action plan for the elimination of all internal EU borders by January 1999. By the first deadline of 1 October, 12 member states had informed the Commission of their timetable for implementing outstanding single market legislation. The remaining three - Greece, the Netherlands and Ireland - confirmed that their replies would be sent shortly. Ten governments had also provided the Commission and their EU partners with details of the coordination centres which will be tasked with handling any bilateral difficulties in single market implementation. However, only six member states had supplied information on the contact points which individuals and businesses could use to ensure their single market rights were respected.

MONTI insisted it was vital that these networks were put in place if the single market was to have credibility with citizens and economic operators. He pointed out that the 'Citizen's Europe' campaign had revealed an appetite in the Union for concrete information. In the space of a few months, 1 million people had been in direct contact, either by telephone or on the Internet, seeking details about the single market. Surveys had revealed that, overall, 75 million (21&percent; of the EU's population) were aware of the campaign.

AN UP-to-date scoreboard, clearly setting out the degree to which member states have implemented the single market legislation, will be published by the Commission next month in a bid to embarrass the laggards into faster action. A more sophisticated exercise than in the past, the table will contain objective data on the rate of implementation and on the number of infringement cases each government faces. It will also include a more subjective assessment of how the public and business perceive the single market. A third section will investigate in greater depth progress in implementing the legislation, sector by sector. The first case study will focus on public procurement.

MINISTERS also met their counterparts from central and eastern Europe to examine the progress the various applicants for EU membership have made in putting the Union's single market laws into place. Monti explained the Commission's plan to establish a series of road maps setting out the priorities for legislation and for effective monitoring to ensure rules are implemented in practice.