Communication: Action plan on the reinforcement of SOLVIT: Bringing the benefits of the Single Market to citizens and businesses

SOLVIT is a free of charge service provided since 2002 by the national administration in each EU Member State and in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. It works under short deadlines and provides pragmatic solutions to EU/EEA citizens and businesses when they are experiencing difficulties with their EU rights being recognized by public authorities, in particular while moving or doing business cross-border in the EU. SOLVIT deals with all cross-border problems relating to the four freedoms of movement (persons, goods, services and capital) including policies closely linked to them (such as taxation, employment, social policy and transport).

Since its launch in 2002, SOLVIT has grown to become a very important means of helping EU/EEA citizens and businesses claim their place at the heart of the Single Market. Building on 15 years’ experience, SOLVIT's case load has increased from 5 to 200 cases a month. In 2016, SOLVIT dealt with 2,414 cases. Its centres took an average of 59 days to handle a case and resolved 89% of the cases.

Whilst SOLVIT was able to solve many problems for citizens and businesses, the increased scale of the service has amplified the challenges. More needs to be done for the system to reap its full potential as a problem-solving tool. Member States have been calling for and supporting a strengthened SOLVIT that works to the full for citizens and businesses. In this context and in line with its political priorities, the Commission is committed to taking, together with Member States, further steps to strengthen SOLVIT’s strategic role to make the Single Market work better in practice.

This Communication sets out measures to strengthen SOLVIT with timelines to be implemented both at the EU and Member States level. Strengthening SOLVIT will be an ongoing process and the timelines will allow monitoring of the implementation of the necessary measures. They aim to promote SOLVIT by (i) further improving its quality, (ii) further increasing awareness-raising activities and (iii) upgrading its role in EU law enforcement.

ESO: Background information: Launch of proposals to tackle barriers to freedom of establishment http://www.europeansources.info/record/launch-of-proposals-to-tackle-barriers-to-freedom-of-establishment/

EUR-Lex: SWD(2017)210: Assessment of the performance of SOLVIT http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2017:210:FIN

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