The information on this site is subject to a disclaimer and a copyright notice . Qualifications Proper and consistent enforcement of common rules across the entire Single Market will be one of the key targets of the Action Plan to be presented to the Amsterdam European Council in June 1997. On average, one third of these infringement cases concern late transposition of legislation, one third concern complaints and one third are cases where the Commission has itself become aware of an infringement.
Primary responsibility lies with the Member States.
Delays and disparities in applying and enforcing Single Market rules at national level and failure to apply the principles of European Union law distort competition and destroy jobs. Member States must close the gap between what they say and what they do concerning the Single Market. The Commission has already acted to accelerate infringement proceedings and make them more transparent, but the process must be continued. This is why infringements are amongst the data that could be included in compiling a Single Market scoreboard to reflect the state of the Single Market and Member States' level of commitment to fulfilling the forthcoming Action Plan. The overall number of complaints concerning alleged violations of Single Market rules received by DG XV from businesses and individuals, both directly and through the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament, was similar in 1996 to 1995.