Member States are increasingly transparent about their single market practices, according to a report published by the European Commission on Monday 26 September.
The report, on the implementation of the Single Market Transparency Directive over the period 2016-2020, shows that during this period, Member States notified a total of 3,500 draft national regulations on technical products and IT services.
The highest proportion of notifications concerned rules affecting the construction sector, agricultural products, fisheries, aquaculture and other foodstuffs.
At the same time, the report notes that Member States are increasingly requesting peer review of these draft rules. For example, there has been a fourfold increase in the opinions provided by Member States on notifications from other Member States between 2016 and 2020.
However, during the reporting period, the Commission detected several recurrent barriers in the notified draft measures. “These included the lack of the single market clause, misleading and unclear provisions that could have been interpreted and applied as market restrictions or repetition of provisions of EU regulations, the issue of mandatory standards, and additional test methods”, the text reads.
This report comes a few days after the presentation of the Single Market Emergency Instrument (see EUROPE 13024/1).
SMET. On the same day, the Single Market Enforcement Task Force (SMET) held a new meeting on ‘prior checks’, document requirements for the recognition of professional qualifications and permits for the deployment of renewable energy. At this stage EUROPE has no information on the content of the discussions. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)