European Parliament resolution on the Commission's seventeenth annual report on monitoring the application of Community law (1999) (COM(2000) 92 - C5-0381/2000 - 2000/2197(COS))
Date: 2001-09-04
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: activity report, application of EU law, infringement of EU law, member country, national implementing measure

C 72 E/72

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

21.3.2002

Tuesday 4 September 2001

7.
Calls for the inclusion, in the context of discussions on future Treaty amendments, of the concept of
worker participation (Mitwirkung) in addition to information and consultation under Article 137 of the
Treaty, subject to the agreement of the social partners, and calls for only genuine codetermination to be
subject to the unanimity rule;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the social

8.
partners.

6. Monitoring application of Community law (1999)

A5-0250/2001

European Parliament resolution on the Commission(cid:146)s seventeenth annual report on monitoring
the application of Community law (1999) (COM(2000) 92 (cid:129) C5-0381/2000 (cid:129) 2000/2197(COS))

The European Parliament,

(cid:129) having regard to the Commission(cid:146)s seventeenth annual report on monitoring the application of Com-

munity law (1999) (COM(2000) 92) (1),

(cid:129) having regard to the second annual survey on the application of, and respect for, environmental law

(cid:129) January 1998 to December 1999,

(cid:129) having regard to petitions Nos 429/2000 and 555/2000,

(cid:129) having regard to the report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market and the
opinions of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the Committee on Petitions
(A5-0250/2001),

A. whereas the task of the Commission(cid:146)s annual reports on monitoring the application of Community
law is essentially twofold, namely: to establish to what extent Member States have transposed and
properly applied directives and to account for the Commission(cid:146)s use of its discretionary powers to
initiate violation proceedings,

B. whereas, for all the applicable directives, the average rate of communication of transposal measures by
all the Member States is 94,53 %, but account must be taken above all of the effective implementation
of directives in national legislation,

C. whereas the consistent application of Community law in each country constitutes a primary precon-
dition for the smooth operation of the single market and the substantial and continuing disparities
between Member States regarding the application thereof mean that the (cid:145)acquis communautaire(cid:146)
is
incomplete,

D. bearing in mind that one of the reasons for the poor implementation of Community law is the

inability to understand secondary Community legislation,

E. whereas the enlargement and consolidation of the Community call for a re-evaluation of the pro-
cedure for drawing up the Commission(cid:146)s annual reports on monitoring the application of Community
law and the role of these reports,

F. whereas the Commission sent 1 075 letters of formal notice in 1999,

G. whereas the number of complaints received by the Commission services has increased by 16 % and
the number of petitions resulting in the initiation of proceedings for non-compliance has steadily risen
and the state of application of Community law thus casts a shadow over the future of the single
market,

(1) OJ C 30, 30.1.2001, p. 1.

21.3.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 72 E/73

Tuesday 4 September 2001

H. whereas the right to petition the European Parliament enables EU citizens to engage in dialogue with
the men and women whom they have elected and who represent them, to provide them with
information on cases which they consider to represent incorrect applications of Community law, and
to ask them to remedy the problems,

I. whereas this dialogue must be both encouraged and further developed, since it is a basic precondition

for citizen confidence in the European institutions,

J. whereas the judgements of national courts referred to by the Commission concerning the right of
individuals to compensation owing to losses caused by the failure of Member States to meet their
obligations under Community law still leave much to be desired,

K. whereas the unappealable judgments handed down by national courts which resort to the theory of

the (cid:145)acte clair(cid:146) to refuse to ask prejudicial questions is a cause for serious concern,

L. whereas the number of judgments handed down by the European Court of Justice establishing a viol-
ation of Community law by the Member States which have not yet been implemented remains high,

M. whereas the proper and effective application of Community law constitutes one of the most basic
criteria for assessing the credibility of the European Union and strengthening European citizenship,

N. bearing in mind that Community law is no longer simply a branch of law, but has penetrated all the

individual branches of law and requires systematic knowledge by legal practitioners,

O. whereas the European Union is grounded on the principle of the rule of law, a principle which is
common to the judicial systems of all the Member States, and the Member States must be the custo-
dians par excellence of this principle,

P.

bearing in mind that various forms of violation occur, each with its own specific features, and the
reasons for each category of violation are different,

Q. whereas some Member States deliberately fail to transpose Community legislation in the manner pre-

scribed,

R. whereas the recent acquisition of a 20 % stake in Montedison by ElectricitØ de France (EDF), a French
state-owned monopoly in the electricity sector, is part of a policy of expansion on the part of EDF,
which is taking advantage of the incomplete application by France of Directive 96/92/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 1996 concerning common rules for the
internal market in electricity (1),

Calls on the Commission to undertake a systematic evaluation of the causal links between the various
1.
reasons for violations and the different forms of violation of Community law and in the light of this to
seek appropriate measures to reduce violations;

2.

Calls on the Commission to include its evaluation of statistical data contained in the annual report;

Calls on the Commission to do everything within its power, notably by imposing stricter deadlines

3.
on Member States, to speed up the procedure for dealing with complaints or petitions;

4.
Calls on the Commission to consider the simplification of Community law as a matter of priority,
notably through the SLIM initiative, and to present a complete programme of codification with binding
deadlines;

5.
Calls on the Council and the Commission, in conjunction with the European Parliament, to lay down
new rules for the consideration of petitions and re-examine the procedure in order to make the substantial
processing of citizens(cid:146) petitions more effective; reiterates its wish to see closer cooperation between the

(1) OJ L 27, 30.1.1997, p. 20.

C 72 E/74

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

21.3.2002

Tuesday 4 September 2001

Committee on Petitions, the Council and the Commission, on the basis of a new interinstitutional agree-
ment, thus making it possible to act effectively on all occasions when a petitioner lodges a justifiable
complaint over non-compliance with Community law; reminds the Council of Parliament(cid:146)s previous
requests to be present at its meetings in cases of serious infringements of Community law;

6.
Regrets that, of the 53 directives that came into force in the field of European social law, only 38
have been incorporated into national law in all Member States and calls on the Member States to expedite
the procedures for the remaining directives;

7.
Points out that all four cases in the review period where the Commission has for a second time
opened infringement proceedings against a Member State for failure to comply with a European Court of
Justice judgment concern aspects of social law; encourages the Commission firmly to apply Article 228(2)
of the Treaty; calls on the Commission to threaten to impose a fine that would have a sufficiently dis-
suasive effect;

8.
Calls on the Commission, taking into account the present state of application of Community law, to
consider in detail the impact of future enlargements on the effectiveness of the present system of trans-
posing directives and monitoring the application thereof;

9.
Calls on the Commission, in the light of experience to date in applying Community law and bearing
in mind the increased problems resulting from the enlargement and consolidation of the Union, to draw
up as a matter of top priority a programme of measures seeking to apply Community law effectively, if
necessary by proposals for amendments to the Treaties, and in particular to draw up a list of the entire
(cid:145)acquis communautaire(cid:146);

Calls on the Commission to examine in greater detail the unappealable decisions handed down by

10.
national courts invoking the theory of the (cid:145)acte clair(cid:146);

Calls on the Commission to give separate attention to the issue of (cid:145)voluntary(cid:146) violations of Com-

11.
munity law in which Member States simply delay implementation, and to make appropriate proposals;

12.
Calls on the Commission once again to endeavour to find political solutions and, in particular, to
consider the possibility of proposing the revision of those elements of Community legislation which are
most frequently the occasion of complaints concerning breaches of Community law by more than one
Member State;

Urges the Commission to verify in the light of the subsidiarity principle, as formulated in the
13.
treaties, whether the opening of an infringement procedure is always necessary for (cid:145)supposed cases(cid:146) of
bad transposition;

Draws attention to the disproportionate number of infringement cases in the area of freedom of
14.
movement Regulation (EEC) No 1612/68 of the Council of 15 October 1968 on freedom of movement for
workers in the Community (1) and coordination of social security schemes for migrant workers (Regulation
(EEC) No 1408/71 of the Council of 14 June 1971 on the application of social security schemes to
employed persons and their families moving within the Community (2) and to the increasing number of
problems faced by cross-border workers and urges therefore that the Council should at last adopt compre-
hensive rules concerning the free movement of persons and expedite its work on the adaptation and
simplification of Regulation (EEC) No 1408/71;

15.
Notes that the number of infringements in the field of the equal treatment of men and women is
still high, particularly as regards the protection of pregnant women, in respect of which the Commission
forwarded reasoned opinions in 1999 to five Member States relating to the poor implementation of Coun-
cil Directive 92/85/EEC of 19 October 1992 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements
in the safety and health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth or are
breastfeeding (tenth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC) (3);

(1) OJ L 257, 19.10.1968, p. 2.
(2) OJ L 149, 5.7.1971, p. 2.
(3) OJ L 348, 28.11.1992, p. 1.

21.3.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 72 E/75

Tuesday 4 September 2001

Calls on the Member States and the Commission to put forward proposals imposing automatic

16.
penalties upon Member States which do not transpose Community legislation in the manner prescribed;

Recalls that Parliament attaches particular importance to the rigorous transposition of the electronic
17.
commerce directive, as emphasised in its position at second reading (1), and calls on the Commission and
Member States to resist any attempts to roll back the electronic commerce directive or dilute its provisions,
in particular with respect to the country of origin principle and the liability of Internet intermediaries;

18.
Regrets the particularly high number of states (5) which have failed to implement the Framework
Directive 89/391/EEC (cid:129) even though Member States were required to bring into force the laws, regu-
lations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 31 December 1992, and
that the transposition of the individual directives adapting the corpus of existing law in the field of safety
and health at work is proceeding very slowly; calls on the Commission to urge the Member States to speed
up the transposition of these directives and to assign more staff to this policy area, to ensure that trans-
position procedures are systematically checked;

Calls on the Commission to consider the fact that national parliaments and devolved parliaments
19.
responsible for transposing Directives do not necessarily discuss the annual report and to ensure that
parliamentary controls take place and to forward their conclusions to the Commission, the European
Parliament and the Council;

Calls on the President of the Council to publish a report on compliance with Community law and

20.
the transposition of this law by the Member States;

Reiterates its appeal to the Commission to add to the annual report sections on the application of
21.
Article 95(4) of the Treaty and on the application of the international agreements adopted by the Com-
munity and the legislation resulting from such agreements;

Calls on the Commission once again to include in its future annual monitoring reports on the
22.
application of Community law a section on the petitions forwarded to it by the Committee on Petitions;

Calls on the Commission to encourage the national authorities to request technical aid from the

23.
Commission in order correctly to transpose Community law;

24.
Calls on the Commission to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure the full application of
Council Directive 94/80/EC of 19 December 1994 laying down detailed arrangements for the exercise of
the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in municipal elections by citizens of the Union residing in a
Member State of which they are not nationals (2) and Directive 93/109/EC of 6 December 1993 laying
down detailed arrangements for the exercise of the right to vote and stand as a candidate in elections to
the European Parliament for citizens of the Union residing in a Member State of which they are not
nationals (3);

25.
Expects the Commission to reach agreement with the Member States on a definition of precise
criteria for delimitation of occupations carried out in a self-employed or employed capacity that are subject
to national social security systems, so as to prevent complaints, especially by those involved in teaching;

Calls on the Commission, in view of numerous complaints by students and trainees, to remove the

26.
barriers to educational mobility that still exist;

Calls on the Commission to intervene in specific cases of the poor application of Community law

27.
by the national administrations;

Calls on the Commission to investigate whether particularly lower courts in the Member States are

28.
properly applying Community law;

(1) OJ C 41, 7.2.2001, p. 38.
(2) OJ L 368, 31.12.1994, p. 38.
(3) OJ L 329, 30.12.1993, p. 34.

C 72 E/76

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

21.3.2002

Tuesday 4 September 2001

29.
Calls on the Commission to take all measures that the Community legal system allows to put an
end to the violations of Community law and of the abovementioned Directive 96/92/EC with a view to
obviating any imbalances which might thwart the purposes for which the directive was adopted: the
creation of a genuine internal market in the electricity sector, the completion of a competitive electricity
market, the liberalisation of national markets and the prevention of any abuses of dominant positions and
predatory behaviour;

30.
Takes the view that the Commission should give increased priority to the swift electronic dissemi-
nation of Community law in a comprehensible and easily accessible form, particularly through the Inter-
net, to non-governmental organisations and citizens particularly in remote regions;

Calls on the Commission to step up work to put the main legal instruments in force into electronic

31.
form and to make it possible to access them by Internet;

Calls on the Commission to draw up a list of all the reports on the application of Community law
32.
(cid:129) both general and sector-based (cid:129) by the national authorities of the Member States and the countries
which are members of the European Economic Area;

33.
Calls on the legal authorities in the Member States to ensure that there is no discrimination in the
manner in which legal aid is made available between cases which are exclusively concerned with national
law, and those which involve Community law;

34.
Notes that with regard to the free movement of persons, problems in the application of Community
law are due more to defective implementation by the authorities of the Member States than to lack of
transposition; therefore calls on the Commission to intervene in individual cases with the Member States
involved;

35.
Calls on the Commission to mention in the annual report the follow-up it has given to European
Parliament proposals on improving the methods for the correct application of Community law and, where
it has not followed them, to state the reasons why it did not do so;

36.
Reiterates its view that citizens who are well-informed and conscious of their rights under Com-
munity law play a key role in the comprehensive and sound application of Community law and therefore
also welcomes initiatives such as Europe Direct and strongly supports them;

37.
Strongly opposes the Commission(cid:146)s hesitation about the future of Eurojus, the network of special-
ised advisers at the Commission(cid:146)s delegations in the Member States, as expressed in the Communication on
a new framework for information and communication policy of the European Union (COM(2001) 354)
and invites the Commission to reinforce the Eurojus network;

38.
Calls on the Member States and the Commission to introduce a genuine transparency policy (cid:129)
following the fruitful example of the Commission(cid:146)s press releases and the Committee on Petitions(cid:146) passing
on details to the media of possible delays, obstructions or refusals in providing information on petitions by
the Member States(cid:146) responsible authorities (cid:129) with the aim of securing an attitude of acceptance and
confidence vis-(cid:224)-vis the Community institutions on the part of the citizens of the EU;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Court of

39.
Justice, and to the parliaments and governments of the Member States.