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Internal market scoreboard

2009/2141(INI)

The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection adopted the own-initiative report drafted by Róża, Gräfin von THUN UND HOHENSTEIN (EPP, PL) on the Internal Market Scoreboard.

Members welcome the Commission Recommendation of 29 June 2009 on measures to improve the functioning of the single market on measures to improve the functioning of the single market. They stress that Member States should not cherry-pick the measures that suit them best but undertake to implement them all.

Member States are urged to work closely with the Commission and with each other, and to assume their share of responsibility and ownership to exploit the potential of the internal market fully. The Commission is called upon to use all its powers in ensuring effective application of internal market rules including effective market monitoring, harmonisation, further simplification of legislation and other tools to reduce the administrative burden on citizens and businesses.

The committee takes the view that it is important to act at an earlier stage in order to limit the risk of a transposition deficit and that the Commission should do more to support the Member States throughout the transposition period. It also takes the view that this should involve in particular dialogue and a greater exchange of information aimed at anticipating possible problems and seeking to resolve them before the end of the deadline for transposition.

In this context, it particularly supports the idea of close involvement of national parliaments and enhanced cooperation with other stakeholders, such as the social partners, during negotiations and the transposition process. It underlines the importance of open dialogue and closer cooperation between national parliaments and the European Parliament with a view to further discussion and detailed consideration of the problems encountered by Member States during the transposition process.

The Commission is invited to:

  • organize an annual Internal Market Forum bringing together representatives of EU institutions and Member States and other stakeholders in order to establish a clearer commitment to transposition, application and enforcement of internal market legislation;
  • regularly include in its Internal Market Scoreboard more detailed information on the application and enforcement of internal market legislation, including objective indicators as to the functioning of the internal market;
  • look into new ways to eliminate remaining barriers to completing the internal market, including the creation of a "internal-market test" for all proposed new EU legislation, to ensure that proposed new measures do not undermine the internal market;
  • use the Commissions annual review of the application of Community Law in a more strategic way by focusing on vertical policy areas which could improve the qualitative analysis of the Internal Market Scoreboard;
  • present a more reader-friendly press release together with the Internal Market Scoreboard in order to raise awareness of its results and to increase pressure on the Member States to ensure the correct and timely transposition of directives.

Transposition: Members welcome the fact that the transposition deficit of 1% has been met for the third consecutive time. They urge the nine Member States which failed to reach this objective to take action to improve their record.

The report recalls that the number of directives that have not been transposed by one or more Member States remains too high and calls on the Commission and the Member States to work together to bring this number down as a matter of urgency, starting with those directives whose transposition has been overdue for two years or more. Member States are urged to provide the Commission with correlation tables containing detailed information on the national measures taken to transpose directives in order for it to be able to provide more detailed information on the quality of transposition.

Application: the report considers that Member States should enhance the efficient cooperation among national, regional and local authorities involved in applying internal market rules by ensuring and strengthening an internal market coordination function within their national administrations. It invites:

  • Member States to provide national and local civil servants and judicial authorities with regular training on internal market rules in the framework of existing Community programmes and networks;
  • the Commission to view internal market legislation as a circular process in which ex-post evaluations should play an important part and should be used to establish whether the legislation meets or surpasses the original impact assessment and, if not, to identify how it should be amended or recast to ensure that it meets its original objectives.

Enforcement: the committee holds the view that Member States should step up their efforts in providing information to citizens and businesses about their rights in the internal market, enabling them to exercise those rights in practice. It calls on the Commission to:

  • finalise as a matter of priority the Single Market Assistance Services project for streamlining information, advice and problem-solving assistance services and making them more accessible;
  • establish and strengthen the 'Your Europe - Business' portal as an electronic one-stop-shop for business information relating to the internal market;
  • make greater use of the Enterprise Europe Network for the targeted distribution of information and to reduce bureaucracy for the Network's partners;
  • take the necessary measures in order to make the SOLVIT centres and their free-of-charge problem-solving services more visible to European businesses and citizens.