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Better governance for the single market

2012/2260(INL)

The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection adopted a report by Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE) with recommendations to the Commission on the governance of the Single Market (Initiative – Rule 42 of the Rules of Procedure).

Noting that 20 years after its official creation, the Single Market has not yet been fully completed, Members request the Commission to submit as soon as possible, whilst considering as the possible legal basis all relevant provisions of the TFEU relating to the internal market, including Article 26(3) TFEU, a proposal for an act aimed at strengthening the governance of the Single Market. The report contains a series of detailed recommendations concerning the following:

Legislation: better evaluating the impacts:

  • strengthen the coordination inside the Commission, better evaluate the need for new instruments and hence improve the coherence before a legislative act is proposed;
  • opt for regulations instead of directives, wherever appropriate;
  • introduce a ‘Single Market Test’ to measure the impact of new legislation at national level on the Single Market;
  • consider the feasibility of the extension of the scope of Directive 98/34/EC (‘Notification Directive’) to other sectors.

Better transposition, implementation and enforcement:

  • each Member State should transpose every directive in a consistent manner and adopt all transposition measures relating to the whole of a Union legislative act jointly and at the same time;
  • make greater use of correlation tables to ensure greater transparency of implementation and uniform application of Union law in the Member States;
  • governance of the internal market could benefit from increased and enhanced exchanges of experience and best practices between civil servants at Union and national level;
  • beyond mere statistical assessments, there is the need for a qualitative evaluation of implementation which allow to consider which measures have a particular impact and economic relevance for the Single Market;
  • it is pertinent to distinguish between non-transposition, which is a clearly identifiable failure by the Member State, and non-conformity with Union law, which is a case of a different understanding of the underlying legislative act;
  • Parliament should be provided annually with a list of non-transposed or incorrectly transposed Union legislation in the Member States concerned;
  • in regard to enforcement, there should be a ‘zero tolerance’ policy in relation to Member States that do not implement the rules of the Single Market properly;
  • the Commission should promote the use of the ‘EU Pilot’ and further improve its effectiveness, in order to better detect and correct infringements of Single Market rules;
  • the Commission should offer a more extensive use of ‘EU sweeps’ to Member States in order to facilitate surveillance, in particular by less-equipped and less-prepared national authorities.

Key areas: setting priorities: Members recommend a stronger focus on a limited number of instruments and actions in order to achieve tangible improvements in the application of Single Market rules. They consider that the digital Single Market, the services sector, the energy sector, public procurement, research and innovation, as well as consumer protection and increased mobility of citizens, in particular workers and professionals, figure among the most important key areas for growth.

The report insists on the need to take further steps towards a regulation of financial services to ensure adequate information and protection for consumers and the transparent assessment of financial products, particularly the risky ones. They also emphasise that a properly functioning and fully completed Single Market cannot be effective without a single, interconnected and efficient European transport system.

In Members’ opinion, the Single Market strategy should strengthen social welfare, convergence and workers’ rights, prevent social dumping and ensure fair working conditions for all Europeans.

European Semester: the evaluation of the state of the Single Market should become an integral part of the European Semester, with a Single Market Governance pillar being put in place alongside the Economic Governance pillar. Members consider that the Commission’s proposal to prepare an annual report on the integration of the Single Market contributing to the evidence base underpinning country-specific recommendations could lay the foundation for a future annual Single Market cycle within the European Semester.