Coherence Notwithstanding the principle of subsidiarity, coherence within and between the Member States is absolutely essential. A coherent and systematic approach to market surveillance is vitally important to the Single Market, so as to ensure the same high level of protection for all EU citizens. We don't need uniformity of the enforcement arrangements but we do need this common objective of high levels of protection. Coherent arrangements at the national and intra-Community level are an essential prerequisite to having the European Union firmly on track to ensure a truly unified Single Market, growth and international competitiveness by the time the single currency is launched in 1999. Businesses know it.
Citizens know it.
But only the Member States can really do anything about it. It is up to each country to coordinate its own national arrangements and then to make abundantly clear and comprehensible to others how its market surveillance is organised, both horizontally and by sector. The Action Plan for the Single Market I turn now to the Single Market Action Plan. I want to stress that, when implemented, the Action Plan will have important implications for market surveillance. While the Action Plan will reinforce market surveillance, it will also tend to penalise any country that does not take action now to improve its market surveillance.