Press Release: Internal Market: Scoreboard reveals mixed performance by Member States

On 28 May 2001 the European Commission published Single Market Scoreboard No.8. It reveals that the European Union's average implementation deficit for Internal Market Directives has shrunk to 2.5% - down from 3% only six months ago. However, only three Member States (Sweden, Denmark and Finland) met the European Council's 98.5% implementation target set at Stockholm. Since the last Scoreboard in November 2000, Portugal and Luxembourg have made great strides, both moving up four places in the overall rankings. Sweden ranks first and has been able to cut its already low deficit in half, to 0.5%. The worrying news is that Austria and the UK, whose deficits were already among the highest, are backsliding. The Scoreboard also reviews environmental Directives, where the average deficit is an alarmingly high 7.1%. The number of alleged infringements of Internal Market rules keeps growing and is now at nearly 1,800, up by 7% since last November. The Scoreboard also contains the results of a survey of prices for consumer electronics and fresh foods, which show that large price differences continue to exist across Member States.