Brussels, 12/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Union is making headway in the establishment of the Internal Market, but it is moving too slowly. Progress has been made in some areas such as telecommunications and energy to mention just a couple. The Council and Parliament, however, are dragging their feet in key issues such as the Community Patent and public procurement. If it hopes to become the most dynamic knowledge economy in the world by the year 2010, the EU must speed up and rapidly avail itself of adequate provisions mainly in the fields of transport, competition, company mergers and financial services. Such are the main points set out in the Commission's third Internal Market Strategy Review, presented on Thursday.
As far as progress accomplished is concerned, the report indicates that the success rate for completing target initiatives stands at just over 50%, about the same as last year. Considerable progress has been made in opening up the postal services to competition, as well as in the procedures to be followed for accelerating and improving the legislation on transferable securities, in the liberalisation of car sales (see Commission's recent proposals), liberalisation of the telecommunications sector (adoption of the "telecommunications" package), cross border investment (adoption of the UCITS directive) and recognition of professional qualifications (Commission proposals). On the other hand, considerable delays, that the Commission largely puts down to the Parliament and Council, have been recorded in other fields, mainly the Community Patent, the legislative package on public procurement and the directive on public take-over bids. European Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, however, feels the agreement concluded at the Summit of Barcelona on a subject that is as delicate as the opening of gas and electricity markets to professionals "has given (us) renewed momentum". He says "the next acid test will be the Internal Market Council on 21st May when I hope we will be able to reach agreement on key initiatives such as the Community Patent and updating public procurement rules. It is no good just talking about encouraging innovation and competition while continuing to overburden businesses and to deny citizens value for money by not properly opening up public procurement procedures". The report, moreover, reveals unequal progress in the transposition into national law of internal market legislation. Only seven Member States achieved the implementation deficit target (1.5%) in March 2001 by the European Council of Stockholm, which, says Mr Bolkestein, "means that the internal market is not working at its optimum level - and it needs to if we are to be the most competitive economy in the world by 2010".
There is therefore still a lot to do. This is why the report sets a certain number of targets, together with a timetable, for the next eighteen months. The major issues still to be resolved include, above all, the continued liberalisation of energy and transport utilities for the benefit of consumers and business, improving competition and merger rules at a European level, and improving enforcement cooperation between national public authorities responsible for protecting consumers' economic interests. It is mainly the financial services sector, however, that is highlighted. The Commission stresses that the Council and the European Parliament must approve several proposals relating to prospectuses, market abuse and pension funds. These directives are essential to create a more integrated securities market, necessary if the European Union is to compete with the US.
Finally, the Review states that more account should be taken of the special needs of citizens, consumers and small businesses, and highlights the importance of getting the "fundamentals" right. The Commission admits that this includes "issues which are not earth shattering or particularly newsworthy such as compliance and enforcement, standardisation and mutual recognition, but which need to be done properly if the Internal Market is to work at a practical level". (The full text of the review is available at: http: //http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/update/strategy/index.htm ).