European Commission publishes Internal Market Scoreboard No.12, May 2003

As the European Union's single market enters its second decade of existence, the Internal Market Scoreboard No.12, published by the European Commission on 5 May 2003, reveals that the implementation of EU laws governing the internal market is getting progressively worse not better.

The Internal Market Scoreboard has been a biannual feature of the European Commission's work in this area since 1997. Published in May and November, it charts the progress of the EU's Member States in the implementation of internal market legislation with the aim of encouraging Member States to full transpose and implement this area of EU law, thereby contributing to the effective functioning of economic activity within the EU.

The main finding of the May 2003 scoreboard shows that the average implementation deficit for Internal Market Directives is 2.4% per Member State, compared to 1.8% in May 2002 - the lowest ever figure. Although the 2003 figure is a far cry from the 21.4% implementation deficit recorded in 1992, it suggests that many years of progress may have come to an end as the implementation of EU Internal Market Directives returns to the level reached in May 2001 with ten new Member States yet to join.

Of the current fifteen EU Member States, only 5 - Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Spain and the United Kingdom - have met the European Council's target of 1.5% or less whilst the EU's worst offender, Italy, recorded an implementation deficit of 3.9%. To add to the European Commission's concerns, only France, Belgium, Spain and Denmark have fewer outstanding Directives than six months previously. However France is the worst offender when it comes to meeting the 'zero tolerance target' set by the European Council in Barcelona in March 2002 concerning the implementation of Directives that is two or more years overdue: France still has 9 of these Directives outstanding and only Denmark, Finland, Portugal and the United Kingdom meet the 'zero' standard. Overall, Denmark appears to be the 'best performer', achieving all three EU targets with Finland and the United Kingdom following close behind.

Another key finding of the scoreboard is the marked increase in the number of open infringement cases, up 6% from the November 2002 scoreboard to 1598 cases. However, the report notes that the distribution of these cases has hardly changed over the last two years with France and Italy accounting for almost 30% of all cases. In line with previous years, the majority of these infringement cases take at least two years to resolve.

The low price level for goods and services in the ten soon to join Member States is the third major finding of the scoreboard. Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia all have a price level below 50% of the EU15 average, whilst Malta and Cyprus who come closest to the current EU Member States have a price level of 87% and 82% respectively. These figures compare to price levels of 60% and 72% for Portugal and Spain respectively when they joined the EU in 1985. Whilst the difference this time is much wider, particularly in the provision of services, the European Commission expects the accession of the ten candidate countries to lead to price convergence as they catch up with the current EU's living standards. Indeed current figures show that price dispersion in the EU25 fell between 1999 and 2000 whilst the same figure for the EU15 remained stable.

Commenting on the first Internal Market Scoreboard of 2003, the European Commissioner responsible for this policy area, Frits Bolkestein, said:

'Member States which do not implement Directives on time are reneging on commitments they have made. Worse, they are creating unnecessary barriers which prevent Europe's economy from achieving its full potential and hold back our companies and citizens. They are also damaging the prospects of a smooth enlargement process. Heads of Government have reiterated at successive European Councils the importance of getting the implementation deficit down. I now call on Heads of Government to back up those words with action, by making respecting European laws one of their personal objectives for this year'.

The publication of the Internal Market Scoreboard comes at the start of the week when the European Commission is expected to adopt a new EU internal market strategy for 2003-2006. The proposed legislation, regarded as a priority of the European Commission, is reported to focus on breaking down the barriers to services rather than goods with implementation and enforcement of community law one of the major features.

Links:

European Commission:
	05.05.03:	Press Release: Internal Market Scoreboard shows worsening national delays in implementing EU laws [IP/03/621]
	Internal Market Scoreboard and related documents
	Internal Market Scoreboard No.12 [May 2003]
European Sources Online: Financial Times:
	06.05.03:	EU war on services red tape
European Sources Online: In Focus
	The Single Market ten years on
European Sources Online: Topic Guides
	The Single Market

Helen Bower

Compiled: Tuesday, 6 May 2003

Internal Market Scoreboard No.12 was published by the European Commission on 5 May 2003.