A4-0008/98

Resolution on the Commission's fourteenth annual report on monitoring the application of Community law (1996) (COM(97)0299 - C4-0312/97) and the Commission staff working paper on CELEX (Interinstitutional computerized documentation system for Community law): 1996 annual management report (SEC(97)1082 - C4-0313/97)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission's fourteenth annual report (COM(97)0299 - C4- 0312/97) ((OJ C 332, 3.11.1997, p. 1.)),

- having regard to the Commission staff working paper (SEC(97)1082 - C4- 0313/97),

- having regard to its resolution of 9 February 1983 on the responsibility of the Member States for the application of and compliance with Community law ((OJ C 68, 14.3.1983, p. 32.)),

- having regard to Declaration 19 on the implementation of Community law, annexed to the Final Act of the Treaty on European Union,

- having regard to the case law of the Court of Justice concerning the liability of a Member State for damage caused to individuals by breaches of Community law ((ECJ Judgments of 19 November 1991, Cases C-6/90 and C-9/90, Francovich et Bonifaci, ECR I-5357; 5 March 1996, Cases C-46/93 and C-48/93, Brasserie du pêcheur and Factortame, ECR I-1029; 26 March 1996, Case C-392/93, British Telecommunications, ECR I-1631; 23 May 1996, Case C-5/94, Hedley Lomas, ECR I-2553; 8 October 1996, Cases C-178/94, C-179/94, C-188/94 and C-190/94, Erich Dillenkofer, I-4845; 10.7.1997, Cases C-94/95, Bonifaci and Berto ECR I-3969, C373/95, Maso and Gazetta ECR I-4051 and C-261/95, Palmisani ECR I-4025.)),

- having regard to the Commission memorandum applying Article 171 of the EC Treaty ((OJ C 242, 21.8.1996, p. 6.)),

- having regard to the Commission´s 'Method of calculating the penalty payments provided for pursuant to Article 171 of the EC Treaty¨ ((OJ C 63, 28.2.1997, p. 2.)),

- having regard to two actions brought by the Commission against the Federal Republic of Germany (Cases C-121/97 and C-122/97) on 24 March 1997 ((OJ C 166, 31.5.1997, p. 7.)),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights and the opinions of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection, the Committee of Culture, Youth, Education and the Media and the Committee on Petitions (A4-0008/98),

A. whereas the annual Commission reports on monitoring the application of Community law have two main functions, i.e. establishing the state of transposition of directives by the Member States and giving an account of the use which the Commission has made of its discretionary power to initiate infringement proceedings,

B. whereas, when set against the total number of directives in force, the average notification rate for transposition measures taken by the Member States as a whole is 92.8%; whereas, however, account should be taken primarily of the effective application of directives under national legal systems,

C. whereas dramatic problems of application of Community law have surfaced in the context of the BSE scandal,

D. whereas the Commission began to monitor 1076 new cases in 1996; whereas in 819 of these new cases proceedings were initiated due to complaints lodged by individuals,

E. whereas 36% of all admissible complaints to the European Ombudsman relate to procedures under Article 169 of the EC Treaty which shows that citizens are playing a vital role in the application of Community law,

F. whereas the European Ombudsman has conducted an own-initiative inquiry into how complainants who make the Commission aware of breaches of Community law by Member States are treated by the Commission in the framework of procedures pursuant to Article 169,

G. whereas judgments of national courts reported by the Commission and concerning the right of reparation for individuals suffering injury through the breach of obligations under Community law by Member States leave a lot to be desired and should raise concern,

H. whereas the number of European Court of Justice judgments establishing a breach of Community law by a Member State which have not been implemented has remained high,

1. Points out that the European Court of Justice (which guarantees the legality of acts) has ultimate authority to annul any Community legislative act which goes beyond the Communities' area of competence and therefore draws attention to the fact that any attempt by the Member States' constitutional courts to exercise control over the validity of Community legal acts may jeopardize the uniform application and interpretation of Community law;

2. Welcomes the European Ombudsman´s initiative aimed at improving the procedural rights of individuals who (in the framework of proceedings pursuant to Article 169 of the EC Treaty) complain to the Commission about breaches of Community law by Member States;

3. Calls on the Commission to make every effort (in particular by imposing more stringent deadlines on the Member States) to shorten the relatively long period required for complaints or petitions to be dealt with;

4. Welcomes the Commission´s intention to give reasons why it finds that there is no infringement of Community law whenever it intends to close a file opened due to a complaint by an individual and calls on it to systematically state the reasons justifying the closure in each individual case when intending to close a file; observes that this intention is in the spirit of Parliament´s request made in its resolution of 30 January 1997 on the previous annual report ((OJ C 55, 24.2.1997, p.47.));

5. Asks the Commission to develop further its list of priorities in the processing of complaints and for bringing actions under Article 169 by taking into account, amongst others, the following criteria:

- the loss of own resources suffered by the Community,

- the impact of the infringement on the functioning of the Community,

- damage to human health or the environment,

- economic or other damage suffered by individuals or economic operators,

- the financial and economic advantages which Member States or economic operators of Member States might gain as a result of non-compliance with Community law,

- the number of people affected by the infringement;

6. Calls on all the EU bodies and institutions to maximize their degree of cooperation with the Committee on Petitions so as to enable the shortcomings in the application of Community law in the Member States to be examined;

7. Congratulates the Commission upon the progress it made in the application of Article 171(2) of the EC Treaty and strongly encourages it to make use of that provision;

8. Notes that the Commission´s 'calculation method¨ for periodic penalty payments is calculated per day and on the basis of a flat rate which is the same for all Member States; further notes that this flat rate is the basis for calculating individually the penalty payment imposed on the Member State concerned, applying coefficients taking into consideration the seriousness of the infringement and its duration, and a special factor taking into account the Member State´s ability to pay; nevertheless requires the Commission to give more detailed reasons for the amount of the periodic penalty payment proposed to the Court of Justice in concrete cases and to have those reasons published in the Official Journal when the action is lodged;

9. Requests the Commission to monitor extensively decisions by national courts concerning State liability for breaches of Community law and to report the results in forthcoming annual reports; asks the Commission, should such monitoring yield unsatisfactory results, to consider seriously the tabling of appropriate legislative proposals;

10. Asks for the following new sections to be included in the annual report:

- a section on the application of Article 100a(4) of the EC Treaty,

- a more detailed section on suspect national 'technical regulations' under Article 1(9) of Directive 83/189/EEC as last amended by Directive 94/10/EC ((OJ L 100, 19.4.1994, p. 30.)) and the Commission action taken,

- a section on the application of international agreements to which the Community is contracting party and of law derived from such agreements,

- a section on cases of national transposition of social policy directives by means of collective agreements, to make it possible to study the contribution made by this method of transposition;

11. Urges the Commission to take all necessary action to ensure full application in all Member States of Directive 94/80/EC on the right to vote and stand as candidate for municipal elections for Union citizens residing in a Member State of which they are not nationals;

12. Notes that, with regard to the free movement of persons, problems of application of Community law result from incorrect application by the Member States' administrations rather than from lack of transposition; therefore calls on the Commission to take action against the Member States concerned on a case-by-case basis;

13. Considers that clearer and common lawmaking guidelines and common priorities for the consolidation of legislation for all the institutions are paramount for better legislation; therefore invites all parties concerned to jointly revise or elaborate such priorities and guidelines;

14. Considers it necessary for Parliament, the Ombudsman, the Commission and the Council to step up their joint efforts to inform citizens about the latter's rights and about Community legislation; the Citizens First campaign being a first and good example of this;

15. Considers that the Community should give higher priority to swift and easily accessible electronic dissemination of Community law, especially via the Internet; welcomes the decision of the Management Committee of the Office for Official Publications to give access via the Internet to Community law, including information on the state of implementation of Community law in each Member State;

16. Calls once again on the Member States to ensure that the study of Community law is made compulsory in university courses leading to qualifications which grant access to the legal profession;

17. Reiterates its opinion that the informed citizen, conscious of his/her rights under Community law, is a key factor in achieving full and correct application of Community law; also therefore welcomes and strongly supports initiatives such as Euro-Jus;

18. Stresses the importance of establishing direct e-mail access for citizens to the Commission in the framework of the 'Dialogue with the Citizen'; citizens should have the possibility to ask questions and to receive answers or useful contact addresses;

19. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Court of Justice and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.