The creation of a working group on the implementation of the single market, the reinforcement of networks and co-ordination between Member States and national authorities, the creation of a new portal for non-food products, an ‘e-laboratory’ for the implementation of European rules online, the development of new electronic traceability systems, and more...
These are some of the actions in a list of 26 planned by the European Commission, according to a draft version of the long-term action plan for the better implementation and enforcement of single market rules, obtained by EUROPE on Tuesday 3 March.
The European Commission's objective with this plan, which will be presented on 10 March together with the industrial strategy (see EUROPE 12418/2) and the strategy for SMEs (see EUROPE 12431/11), is to tackle one of “the biggest weaknesses of the single market today”, namely that its rules “are not properly applied, even if the legislation is adapted”. The Commission also wants to revitalise supervisory authorities on a national level, who often suffer from a lack of financial resources and staff.
Two pillars of action
This is why the European Commission plans to set up a Single Market Enforcement Task Force (SMET). According to the document, the working group would hold regular meetings to review the state of compliance with single market rules, as well as to discuss enforcement issues in the implementation of this action plan. On this basis, SMET will produce an annual progress report to be presented to the Competitiveness Council and the European Parliament Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO).
The action plan is based on two pillars: one to foster a culture of compliance among Member States, while the other is to enable better cooperation over the application of EU rules. Among the 26 planned actions, we can therefore mention—in a non-exhaustive manner—the following: - a programme for the publication of new guidelines for authorities (in particular for the Services Directive); - training and information sessions for judges and experts on a national level; - the resumption of interinstitutional negotiations over the Directive regarding the notification of services (which is currently facing difficulties - see EUROPE 12261/4).
The European Commission also proposes: - the revision of the Single Market Transparency Directive (SMTD); - the rationalisation of single market IT systems (the European Commission intends to create a single European information portal for non-food controls as well as a tool focussing on obstacles to the single market); - the setting up of an e-enforcement lab, a laboratory funded under the single market programme, which would test and put into practice advanced IT solutions using big data techniques and artificial intelligence.
In addition, the institution is planning to develop an online dispute resolution platform (ODR) or even to improve the scoreboard on the single market as part of the 'European Semester' budgetary process.
The economic stakes are crucially important if the European Commission figures are to be believed: the single market for manufactured goods could generate €183 billion a year, while further integration of services markets could represent a gain of €297 billion per year. According to the European Commission, it would be possible for these increases to raise European GDP by around 12%. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)