# CE2004088EN.01033601.xml

| 8.4.2004 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | CE 88/336 |
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8.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 88/336

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(2004/C 88 E/0343)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0900/03

by Richard Corbett (PSE) to the Commission

(21 March 2003)

Subject:   Internal market restrictions

Subject:

| 1. | Is the Commission aware that Italy appears to be using technical administrative procedures as a protectionist device to squeeze out trade from companies from other Member States? In particular, SKOPOS Design Ltd of Dewsbury in Yorkshire obtained, over a year ago, the ‘certificato di classificazione di reazonaone al fuoco’ necessary to sell its products in Italy, but is still waiting for the ‘homologation’ from the Ministero dell'Interno. I personally wrote to this Ministry on 20 November 2002 and as yet have had no response. I have subsequently written twice to the Ambassador of the Italian Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels about this matter and have had no satisfactory response either. |
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1.

Is the Commission aware that Italy appears to be using technical administrative procedures as a protectionist device to squeeze out trade from companies from other Member States? In particular, SKOPOS Design Ltd of Dewsbury in Yorkshire obtained, over a year ago, the ‘certificato di classificazione di reazonaone al fuoco’ necessary to sell its products in Italy, but is still waiting for the ‘homologation’ from the Ministero dell'Interno. I personally wrote to this Ministry on 20 November 2002 and as yet have had no response. I have subsequently written twice to the Ambassador of the Italian Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels about this matter and have had no satisfactory response either.

| 2. | Does the Commission agree that Italy has failed to respect the rules of the internal market and the obligation of loyal cooperation laid down in Art. 10 of the Treaty? |
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2.

Does the Commission agree that Italy has failed to respect the rules of the internal market and the obligation of loyal cooperation laid down in Art. 10 of the Treaty?

| 3. | What action will the Commission take to rectify this situation? |
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3.

What action will the Commission take to rectify this situation?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(25 April 2003)

(25 April 2003)

The Commission is aware that authorisation procedures existing for a certain number of products in all the Member States risk to create problems to free movement of goods, often due to the time required by national administrations to carry the procedure out even when these procedures are lightened as much as possible.

The excessive delay for obtaining an answer to the request of authorisation in the case referred by the Honourable Member is certainly regrettable, as it is regrettable the silence of the Italian authorities to whom the Honourable Member requested clarifications twice. Therefore, the case will be registered as a complaint.

In order to reinforce the administrative co-operation and directly involve Member States in handling difficulties that their citizens and enterprises face for entering other domestic markets, a co-operation network has been created to deal with administrative problems having a cross-border impact. This network is called Solvit.

A short presentation of the mission of Solvit and some tips to contact the network are available at the following address: (http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/solvit/index_en.htm).

The Commission considers that Solvit can efficiently deal with the problem the Honourable Member brings to the attention of the Commission. Accordingly, the file will be transmitted to the Solvit network, that will try to solve the problem within ten weeks.

The Commission will closely follow the development of the case.

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