Brussels, 24/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Internal Market Council of 21 May enabled ministers to discuss implementation of the internal market. The Council adopted conclusions on the "updating of the strategy for the internal market", as well as a resolution on administrative simplification, which on the whole confirm the commitments made at the Barcelona Summit. The Council's Spanish, Danish and Greek Presidencies also presented a joint working programme.
On the basis of the Commission's 2002 report on the strategy for the internal market (see EUROPE of 13 April, p. 11), the Council observed accumulated delays, notably on the adoption of public procurement directives and legislation on the creation of a Community patent, which in principle should have been adopted at the end of last year. Here, in its conclusions, the Council reaffirmed its "commitment to reach an agreement rapidly" on these two disputed issues (see yesterday's EUROPE, p. 6 for public procurement and of 22 May, p.9 for patents). The Council "also acknowledged that rapid progress is needed" to reach an agreement in December 2002 on targeted actions "in the fields of financial services, transport, energy and the modernisation of rules regarding competition".
Furthermore, the Council "calls on the Commission also to progress rapidly in fields under its responsibility, notably the strategy to eliminate obstacles to the internal market for services, its action plan for improving legislation, as well as a method of regulating and assessing as well as guidelines for State aid to economic services of a general interest, in compliance with item 42 of the conclusions of the European Council of Barcelona". Ministers were briefed by Commissioner Frits Bolkestein on the preparations of these guidelines and a communication that should be presented early June, in time for the Summit of Seville. Mr. Bolkestein said that the Commission was considering presenting an annual report, in the framework of the Cardiff Process, on services of a general interest in the telecommunications, postal, air transport, railways, gas and electricity sectors, as well as an analysis on the user satisfaction indicators in the framework of implementation of liberalisation.
The conclusions insist that Member states "achieve the goal, by the European Council of spring 2003, that was set regarding transposition, in other words to have achieved by that date a percentage of transposition of 98.5% for legislation relating to the internal market and 100% for directives that should have been implemented over two years ago". Presenting the latest scoreboard on the state of transposition, Commissioner Bolkestein recalled that only seven Member states had respected the undertaking to reduce the deficit in transposition to 1.5%, notably congratulating the efforts made by Belgium and the United Kingdom which have provided themselves with structures to achieve these objectives. France and Germany, on the other hand, "have made hardly any progress in the past 6 to 12 months", the Commission notes in its scoreboard.
In its resolution on administrative simplification, the Council states that it is "waiting with interest the Commission's action plan, as well as its communications on the impact analyses and minimum standards regarding citizen consultation, that have to be presented in time for the European Council of Seville". It approved the priorities that the Commission defined in its communication of December 2001 on regulatory simplification: 1) the simplification and improvement of the acquis communautaire, including the consolidation, reshaping and other forms of consolidation; 2) better prepared and adapted legislation, accessible to citizens, consumers and businesses, based on prior consultation and a method of impact analysis of all important proposals (…) that, notably, covers economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development and makes better use of available regulatory instruments, including instruments that do not come under formal legislation; 3) better transposition and implementation of Community law".
The Spanish, Danish and Greek Presidencies said that the priority issues for the forthcoming months were the Community patent and public procurement, as well as: 1) the status of the European co-operative company; 2) pharmaceutical products; 3) technical harmonisation for motor machines and vehicles; 4) hazardous substances and preparations (EUROPE of 21 February, p.9); 5) legislation on detergents; 6) the patentability of inventions implemented by computers (see EUROPE of 21 February, p.8); 7) the respect of intellectual property (combating piracy and counterfeiting); 8) the Customs 2007 programme; 9) the rights of EU citizens and their families to move and live freely on the territories of other Member States (EUROPE of 24 May 2001); 10) mutual recognition of professional qualifications (EUROPE of 13 March, p. 12); 11) the Green Paper on consumer protection (EUROPE of 6/7 May, p.10); 12) promotion of sales (EUROPE of 22 May, p.8). …/..
The successive presidencies, moreover, pay "special attention to the proposals relating to the elimination of barriers to trade in services that the Commission is to present". They state that "concrete proposals" to improve the economic reform process and the rationalisation of the work of the Council "will be submitted in the required time for the internal market and consumer Council in September 2002". They recall that the strategy of integrating environmental protection and sustainable development in the internal market policy will be examined during the Danish Presidency. They undertake to co-ordinate amongst themselves to follow-up the Commission's Communication on "Live Sciences and Bio-technology". They "grant great importance" to the communication that the Commission is to present on the correct application of the principle of mutual recognition in general and in each sector. They also intend following-up the conclusions of last March on standardisation, recalling that the Commission is to present a report before the Council of 19 May 2003, in the Greek presidency.