Brussels, 16/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - According to the latest Internal Market scoreboard, that the European Commission made public on Thursday, lengthy delays remain in implementing many community directives at national level. The report highlights the technical obstacles to the free movement of goods (for example in the construction sector) and great price differences (food, consumer goods, household articles).
Implementation of the directives. According to the scoreboard, only seven countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium) currently meet the target set at the Stockholm Summit of having an implementation deficit of 1.5% or less (in other words having transposed into national legislation 98.5% of directives on the internal market). The United Kingdom and Belgium have made notable progress in the past six months, whereas France, Germany and Ireland are still way behind this objective. Regarding it as "disappointing" that only seven countries should have met the Stockholm objective, Commissioner Frits Bolkestein told the press that "there can be no excuse for failing to meet deadlines for implementing key measures that Member states themselves have set themselves". He then urged those lagging behind "to pedal fast to arrive quickly"..
Infringements. Mr. Bolkestein deplored the 2% increase (in relation to November 2001) in the number of ongoing infringements (over 1,500), and clearly pointed the finger at France and Italy which, alone, represent 30% of all cases and regretted that Court of Justice rulings are not followed-up. "My services and myself will deal with that", he said.
Shortcomings in the legal framework. The scoreboard reveals that only 50% of actions provided for in the internal market strategy had been achieved in time. Between now and the end of the year, thirteen initiatives will need to be completed: the Council and Parliament will have to adopt proposals to modernise and simplify EU public procurement rules and to create a Community Patent, and different measures regarding competition, financial services, energy and transport. Bolkestein hopes that next week's Internal Market Council will progress on patents and public procurement. Concerning patents, he acknowledged that there still remained "great difficulties" on the language regime and jurisdictional power, and explained in substance that the demands of certain Member states regarding language were incompatible with the goal of securing an "affordable" Community patent. "we are still far from a solution, which could well only come under the Danish Presidency".
Free movement of goods. The scoreboard notes progress in the telecommunications sector but notes that the success has been much more mitigated for construction products. Only a small number of harmonised European standards are available and the level of trade in that sector is below the average, situation that is further complicated by complex technical obstacles stemming from national legislation. In addition, technical regulations have not been harmonised for bicycles (but the CEN is currently preparing a new European standard). The Commissioner also stressed that there were practically no more technical obstacles to the free movement of beer, but there nevertheless remained great differences in taxes and excise duties, that lead to serious distortions and obstructed the smooth running of the internal market.
Price differences. As example, the scoreboard states that a bottle of mineral water Evian costs 4.3 times as much in Finland as in France. For the Commissioner, these disparities seem to be explained by different competitive pressures depending on product and country, as well as culture, climate, local preferences and the cost of transport.