Internal market: strategy over the next five years

On 16/06/1999, the Commission proposed a communication on mutual recognition in the context of the follow-up to the Action Plan for the Single Market. According to the Commission's analysis, the application of mutual recognition is producing results, but grey areas persist, chiefly because ignorance of the principle and its operational consequences on the part of the users of the system, be they Member States or economic operators. In keeping with the spirit of the Action Plan for the Single Market, the Commission is proposing a series of initiatives designed to improve the application of the principle of mutual recognition. Some of the solutions put forward are aimed at economic operators whilst others will have to be implemented by the Member States. The Commission also undertakes to be more vigilant in ensuring the effective application of this principle. Accompanying this Commission communication is the first biannual report on the application of mutual recognition with the purpose of vesting itself with an instrument to monitor the internal market in this particularly difficult field. The report is based on the large amount of information that the Commission has: individual cases based on complaints or detected infringements, notifications received in respect of standards and technical regulations in the framework of Directive 98/34, notifications sent by the Member States with regard to national measures derogating from the principle of free movement of goods, etc. These data, although not exhaustive, serve as reliable indicators of fields in which the application of mutual recognition may or ùmay not pose problems.