EU Takes Action Against 12 Member States Over Internal Market Laws

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

20 October 2005

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it has decided to pursue a total of 14 infringement cases involving 12 Member States for their failure to implement one or more of five different Internal Market Directives.

The EC revealed that it plans to refer the Netherlands to the European Court of Justice because it has not notified the Commission of national measures implementing the 2002 Financial Collateral Directive.

The Commission will also formally request Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Malta, Portugal and Spain to implement the Insurance Mediation Directive.

In addition, France will be formally requested to implement the Directive on supplementary supervision of financial conglomerates.

Meanwhile, Estonia will receive a formal request to complete its implementation of a Directive modifying the definition of ‘credit institutions’ in the Banking Directive, as will Latvia for clarification of the measures it has taken to implement the Directive on legal protection of biotechnological inventions.

These requests take the form of “reasoned opinions”, the second stage of the infringement procedure laid down in Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If there is no satisfactory reply within two months, the Commission may refer the matter to the European Court of Justice.

Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy observed that: “Member States have made impressive overall progress recently in implementing single market laws, but some are still lagging behind."

"When a Directive is not implemented across all Member States, citizens and businesses across Europe are denied the full benefit of the single market and of measures their governments have themselves agreed. The Commission will do all it can to help Member States implement laws on time, but will continue to take remedial action where necessary.”

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