WRITTEN QUESTION P-3144/01

by Carlos Coelho (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(12 November 2001)

Subject: Delays in the transposition of directives

Further to the question put to the Commission in June 2000, I would now draw attention to recent public statements to the effect that there has been little or no change in the situation and that Member States are still delaying the transposition of directives relating to the internal market. It is regrettable that the harmonisation of the economies of the fifteen Member States is proceeding at so slow a pace, thereby jeopardising Europe's competitiveness at a time when the world economy is hovering on the brink of recession.

The fact that Portugal is one of the Member States that has been most reluctant (12 % of EU legislation on the internal market not yet implemented) is a source of concern.

Will the Commission provide a comparative study of the situation in each Member State, indicating the number of directives whose transposition has been delayed in the case of each Member State?

Will the Commission also provide a list of the directives not yet transposed in Portugal?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(7 December 2001)

The Commission publishes information about the state of transposition of Internal Market directives by Member States in its bi-annual Internal Market Scoreboard. The November 2001 issue of the Scoreboard is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat General and is also available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/update/score/index.htm. Information about the transposition of all Community directives is published in the Commission's Annual Report on Monitoring the Application of Community Law(1).

As at 15 October 2001, Portugal's deficit for transposition of Internal Market Directives stood at 2.5 %. With this score, which is slightly above the Community average of 2 %, Portugal ranks 10th of all Member States. While Portugal has considerably improved its performance over the last twelve months, it still has some way to go to meet the target set by the European Council of 98.5 % or more of all Internal Market directives transposed by the time of the Barcelona European Council (15/16 March 2002). Currently, only Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden meet this target.

At present, 10 % of Internal Market directives have not yet been transposed by all Member States. The Commission agrees with the Honourable Member that this so-called fragmentation factor reduces the impact of the Internal Market on economic conditions and citizens' rights by creating unnecessary legal uncertainty. Responsibility for this has to be shared by all Member States, who need to make a concerted effort to honour legal obligations which they have entered into when these outstanding directives were adopted. The Commission has launched infringement proceedings for all cases of non-transposition.

A list of Internal Market directives for which Portugal has not yet communicated implementing national measures to the Commission is also sent direct to the Honourable member and to Parliament's Secretariat General. This list reflects the latest available information as of 20 November 2001.

(1) Eighteenth Report of 2000: COM(2001) 309 final. Volume I.