Brussels, 27/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - Last Friday, the European Commission released the new edition of the "scoreboard" on the single market, publication that periodically outlines the level of application of single market rules in the Member States. The Commission notes that the rate of transposition of European Directives into national legislation has continued to improve; however France and Portugal and especially Greece still suffer from delays. Their "transposition deficits" continue to be three times greater than those of the more successful, which are Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Spain.
Beyond this "transposition" aspect, the "revision 2000" of the strategy for the single market had identified 80 actions to be implemented before the end of 2000. The Commission feels that 44 will be completed in time, 27 have recorded progress and could be completed in the first months of 2001, but for 9 actions there is little or no progress. The Commission defines this assessment as "disappointing", but at the same time "encouraging" with regard to the 27 priority action that had been identified as being susceptible of have a significant and rapid impact on the effective functioning of the single market. It was planned that four are completed before the end of the year; the Commission notes that eight have been completed, including the proposals for a European food authority, the proposals on a strengthening of maritime safety, the strategy for the removal of obstacles to trade in the services sector, the progressive liberalisation of railways, etc. The failures concerns the status of European companies and the Directive on the internal market for natural gas (that has not yet been transposed into national law by four Member States).
The scoreboard also includes the results of an survey made with some 4,000 companies from which it appears that the functioning of the single market leads to a growing level of satisfaction in professional circles. Three quarters of companies questioned feel that the consolidation of the single market will have a favourable effect, or even "very favourable" effect, on their activities.
The Commissioner for the Internal Market Frits Bolkenstein commented positively over these developments, while underlining that they must not slowdown efforts as failing remain, and invited the three most delayed countries to make a special effort. He notes with satisfaction that the existence in itself of the scoreboard lead to positive rivalry between Member States.