Brussels, 17/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - The number of “red cards” shown to the member states over shortcomings in their application of European rules is down, according to the Single Market Scoreboard dated Thursday 17 July. However, infringement proceedings are on the up once again.
The scoreboard analyses how well the member states have performed in terms of the governance tools, such as transposition, infringement proceedings, administrative cooperation networks (EU Pilot, IMI, EURES, Your Europe, SOLVIT, single point of contact). France is in the red in three of the eight categories, which is below the European average (infringement, EU Pilot and IMI). Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Latvia have two red cards each, whilst Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Romania, Estonia (and Icelandic) each have one. However, this adds up to just 20 issues, compared to 30 observed in February. The efforts of the countries in certain areas, with performances above average, are rewarded with green cards, and Estonia and Finland have accumulated the most (eight and seven respectively). 109 green cards have now been given, compared to 99 in February. The number of yellow cards is also up (106, from 94 in February).
Infringements increase. In general, the average transposition deficit is still around 0.7%. Croatia came top of the class with a deficit of just 0.1%. Only five states have a deficit above the 1% target (Belgium, Cyprus, Austria, Portugal and Romania). Infringements are on the rise once again, following a drop since 2008, and the main culprits are Belgium, Germany, Greece, Estonia, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom (with between 30 and 60 infringements ongoing for each of these countries). The texts which cause the most problems are mainly in the fields of transport, taxation and the environment.
Public procurement. For the first time, the scoreboard includes a more detailed analysis of the member states' performances in the field of public procurement and reveals that Sweden, Luxembourg and Finland stand out in terms of the participation rate of bidders (an indicator of competition), accessibility of tenders and the efficiency of procurement procedures. Italy, Greece and Cyprus lagged behind and the newer member states generally tended to underperform.
Postal services. Postal services were also analysed and the Commission notes that postal transit times are shorter in Western and Central Europe and that, in general, national postage prices are systematically lower than international prices, with the exception of Finland. (MD)