Press Release: Internal Market: Commission acts to ensure 19 Member States implement EU laws

The European Commission on 19 April 2006 decided to pursue infringement procedures against 19 Member States for failure to implement in national law one or more of eight different Internal Market Directives. The Commission decided to refer the following Member States to the European Court of Justice over non-communication of national measures implementing certain Directives: Germany, Greece, France, Malta, Spain and Portugal regarding the Insurance Mediation Directive Directive (2002/92/EC); Latvia and the Netherlands regarding a Directive on supplementary supervision of financial conglomerates (Directive 2002/87/EC); Spain regarding implementing provisions for the Market Abuse Directive (2003/6/EC); Sweden regarding a Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications (Directive 2001/19/EC); and Luxembourg regarding a Directive on accounting rules (Directive 2003/51/EC). The Commission also decided to formally request Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom to complete their implementation of a Directive on occupational pensions (IORP Directive 2003/41/EC), and Belgium and Italy to complete their implementation of the Prospectus Directive (2003/71/EC). Finally, the European Commission decided, under Article 228 of the EC Treaty, to send a further 'reasoned opinion' to Spain, requesting it to comply immediately with a previous judgment of the Court on its non-implementation of the 2001 Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC).