Brussels, 21/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - “Services that help European citizens and businesses understand and defend their rights in the EU” so they can use the single market as an opportunity rather than a constraint (which is what they often feel). This was the message conveyed by EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier on 21 February, explaining the European Commission's strategy to extend the Internal Market Information System (IMI) and the annual reports on “Your Europe Advice” and “SOLVIT”.
IMI is a multilingual, online application used by more than 6,000 national, regional and local civil services to exchange information with their foreign counterparts on matters such as professional qualifications or dealing with specific cases. It is expected to be used by increasing numbers of civil servants and expand to cover other areas of cross-border cooperation like mobility, gambling, intellectual property, e-commerce and seconded workers. The commissioner said the idea is for IMI to become a toolbox and a kind of EU Facebook for civil servants. IMI is expected to interact with services for ordinary people and companies at the One Stop Shops providing practical advice and information to companies about administration in the other member states under the services liberalisation directive (see EUROPE 10316) and the SOLVIT network (for out-of-court settlements over improper application of internal market rules by national civil services).
The commissioner provided some figures about use of Solvit and Your Europe Advice. In 2010, for example, some four dozen experts from the member states in Your Europe Advice dealt with 12,000 questions (15% more than in 2009) about Europeans' rights in the language of the person asking the question. Most were answered in a week on average (3 days for 91% of the questions). A quarter of the questions were about social security problems (sickness benefit, pensions and unemployment benefits), 21% about residence rights and 15% about labour law. SOLVIT will be 10 years old next year. In 2010, it provided 1,363 solutions to individuals and companies having problems with national civil services. Some 90% of the cases were successfully settled in 66 days on average. The questions and issues raised provide useful information to the European Commission and some of the cases led on to official infringement proceedings against the countries in question. Some 34% of the cases were about social security, 23% about residence rights and 16% about recognition of professional qualifications.
Summing up, the commissioner said that the various services can be combined, giving the example of German accountants wanting to go and work in Greece. To get information about their rights and working as an accountant in Greece, they can use Your Europe Advice. The Greek civil service can use IMI to find out about the Germans' qualifications. In the event of problems with the Greek civil service, SOLVIT may help the accountants find a fast out-of-court solution. (F.G./transl.fl)