Brussels, 02/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 2 February, Eurochambres, the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry, presented the findings of a survey on the transposition of Directive 2006/123/EC on services in the internal market, which should have been applied in 30 countries (the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) since the end of December 2009. “The services directive is seen by all our members as a very important instrument which will help them, support them and simplify their daily lives,” said Eurochambres Secretary General Arnaldo Abruzzini. According to the organisation's national members, only one third of member states (the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) are correctly implementing the directive, while nine others (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Spain) have recorded average results, and a further eight (Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) have built up real delays. Lithuania does not feature on the performance list. Abruzzini says it is unacceptable that any country should fail to meet the obligations that flow from the services directive, when businesses are not allowed any grace in meeting their tax obligations.
In an internal assessment at the start of this year (see EUROPE 10050), the European Commission identified the same countries, with the exceptions of Ireland and Italy, that were lagging behind in transposing the directive. On the issue of infringement procedures, the Commission says that no further additional time would be allowed and that it would not shy away from its responsibilities. If there has been no communication of national transposition measures, letters of formal notice will be sent imminently. However, given the scale of the work being undertaken, the Commission understands the difficulties being faced by countries and might be tempted to adopt a more conciliatory attitude. It also needs time to assess how well national measures comply with the directive. The peer assessment procedure, under which member states will have their national legislation scrutinised by their peers, will help it complete its checking of national measures. Others see, in the Commission's lack of haste, a desire not to upset member states which it wants fully involved in the peer assessment.
Having played an important role in getting the services directive adopted in 2006, UK Conservative MEP Malcolm Harbour has pointed out that, despite the disappointment of the delay in transposing the directive, member states were moving in the same direction. He gave them a year, until the end of the peer assessment procedure, for transposition to be complete and single contact points to be in operation. He hoped that by the end of 2010 the list of restrictions on the provision of services which member states want to retain will be made public. A meeting between the EP and national parliaments to discuss the implementation of the services directive will take place on Tuesday 27 April. (M.B./transl.rt)