Brussels, 22/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has issued a formal request to Portugal and Spain to implement in full at national level the Commission Directive on the transparency of financial relations between Member States and public undertakings. Commission Directive 80/723/EC effectively places a double transparency requirement on Member States. First, transparency concerning the details of financial relations between public authorities and public undertakings and the use to which public funds are put, and second, transparency vis-à-vis the Commission. In this respect of the latter requirement, the Directive provides for some financial information to be kept by Member States and disclosed to the Commission on request, whereas other information is provided in the form of annual reports. Commission Directive 2000/52/EC extended these transparency requirements to include not only public undertakings but also companies which operate, on the one hand, services of general economic interest and receive compensation in form of payments or special or exclusive rights and which, on the other hand, are also active in normal commercial operations (except in sectors for which another Community instrument already requires separation of accounts - e.g. telecommunications and railways). The Directive aims to ensure the Commission receives the necessary data to examine complaints about alleged over-compensation of public service costs and cross-subsidisation of commercial activities. Portugal and Spain have two months to comply with Commission's request, which if not forthcoming could pursue matters at the European Court of Justice.