EU Asks Nine Countries To Implement Internal Market Laws

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

16 July 2004

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it has formally asked nine member states to fulfil their obligations by fully transposing various EU laws into national legislation.

According to the EC, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal have not fully implemented the 1992 Directive on the public lending right and on rental rights.

In addition, Greece has not written into national law the 2002 Directives on solvency margins for life assurance and insurance companies, and Belgium, Greece, France, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden have not implemented the 2002 Directive on collateral for financial transactions.

The issuing of the reasoned opinions by the Commission represents the second stage of the infringement procedure under Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If no satisfactory response is received within two months, the Commission may decide to take the Member States concerned to the European Court of Justice.

Explaining the move, which conincided with the issuing earlier this week of the Internal Market Scoreboard on the transposition of EU legislation into national law, Internal Market Commissioner, Frits Bolkestein observed that:

"There is no point in Member States agreeing laws at EU level if they then fail to put them into practice. It only takes one Member State to shilly-shally over getting agreed measures into national law. Citizens and businesses across Europe are then denied the full benefit of the new opportunities and the full potential for wealth creation that those measures aim to bring to the Internal Market."

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