Brussels, 17/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 17 October, the European Commission carried out a complete revision of proceedings against infringements of European legislation on the internal market. In certain cases, it is initiating new proceedings or closing others.
Notaries. Eight countries which joined the European Union in or after 2004 (Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia) will receive a reasoned opinion for preserving access and execution to the profession of notary to their nationals. Unlike these Member States, the Commission takes the view that the notary does not participate directly or specifically in the exercise of public authority, a condition which would allow this profession to be exempted from European rules on the freedom of establishment, as a notary can impose a decision going against the will of one of the parties he or she advises. The European institution points out that it has brought similar matters to the European Court of Justice against six Member States (Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Greece and Luxembourg). On the other hand, it congratulated Estonia for deciding to remove this condition of nationality, as Spain, Italy and Portugal have already done. The Commission went on to point out that the proceedings will have no impact on the capacity of the Member States to regulate the profession of notary and are not designed to modify the status of this profession.
Commercial town-planning. The Commission has sent a reasoned opinion to Spain, calling upon the country to change national and Catalan rules on establishment in the field of distribution services, which it considers are particularly restrictive. These rules provide for complex authorisation procedures, which the Commission claims do not respect the principle of freedom of establishment as laid down in the European Treaty. On the basis of considerations of an economic nature and criteria which are not sufficiently predictable and objective, these rules appear to be neither proportionate nor justified by objectives of general interest, which authorise restrictions on the principles of the European Treaty. Several distributors from various Member States have brought complaints.
Boilers. Austria must come into line with the ruling (case C-257/05) of the Court of Justice of the European Union and change its rules restricting opportunities for foreign countries to carry out boiler inspection activities in this country. In 2005, the Court ruled that the Austrian Federal law (“Kesselgesetz”), which requires an operator to be established on the Austrian territory in order to be accredited as an inspection body, was incompatible with the principle of freedom to provide services. In the absence of information on any measures taken by Austria to rectify this, the Commission will give the country two months to bring its legislation into line.
Debt recovery services. In July 2007, the Court sanctioned the incompatibility with the principles of freedom of establishment and free movement of services of certain Italian national provisions applicable to extrajudicial debt recovery agencies. These obligations include the obligation for such an agency to have a licence in each Italian province in which it wishes to carry out its activities. As Italy has not come into line with the Court ruling, the Commission has decided to launch proceedings for non-execution, by sending a letter of formal notice to the Italian authorities.
Audit. The Commission has decided to send France a reasoned opinion, calling upon the country to change its professional code of ethics applicable to the audit profession. For reasons of independence, this code bans auditors established in France from providing services other than accountancy services to the parent company or to a subsidiary of the company which the auditor has personally audited. The Commission takes the view that these rules go way beyond what is required by the provisions of directive 2006/43/EC, which aims to guarantee the independence of statutory auditors.
Health-care reimbursement. France will receive a reasoned opinion for the case of a French patient whose medical expenses in another Member State were not reimbursed. The Commission points out that the case law of the Court obliges Member States to remove the obligation for a patient to hold prior authorisation for non-hospital medical expenses incurred in another country of the EU to be reimbursed. The European institution also takes the view that the French legislation does not allow hospitalised patients in another Member State to obtain a reimbursement which is at least the equivalent of what they would have received if they had been hospitalised in France. This situation goes against the “Vanbraeckel” ruling (case C-368/98).
Premium Bonds. Ireland bans all those who are resident on its territory from taking part in lotteries in another Member State. In particular, it prevents these people from buying “Premium Bonds” in the United Kingdom. Premium Bonds are investment products allowing investors the opportunity to win tax-free sums of money in place of interest payments. The Commission is contesting the description of lottery applied to these financial products and is sending the Irish authorities a reasoned opinion.
Public procurement. 1) The Commission has decided to bring Greece before the Court of Justice of the European Union for an infringement of European legislation on public procurement. According to the Commission, the allocation of contracts aiming to protect and improve the Forest of Seih-Sou, near Thessaloniki, did not respect the principles of transparency and equality of treatment. 2) In 2006, 13 German Länder allocated contracts on the creation of legal databases to Juris, a company partly owned by the Federal State, without opening the contracts up to competition. A reasoned opinion from the Commission will ask the German authorities to justify the absence of competition for these contracts. 3) Austria will also receive a reasoned opinion concerning the allocation without competition by the hospital Spittal/Drau of a contract worth 32 million EUR. The Commission takes the view that the efforts of the Austrian authorities to rectify the infringement of European legislation have been insufficient, and believes that it is time to act, as there are many new contracts pending. 4) The Commission has decided to close infringement proceedings against Germany regarding two public procurement contracts, one for waste management in Braunschweig and the other for the collection of waste water in Bockhorn. These contracts expired before the Court could return a second ruling, further to an initial judgment of 2003 advising Germany to come into line with European legislation.
Non-transposition. 1) 22 Member States are targeted for failing to transpose European directives into their internal legislation. All of the Member States of the EU with the exception of Bulgaria, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Slovenia have failed to communicate their national measures for the transposition of directive 2006/100/EC, which modifies the list of professional qualifications benefiting from automatic recognition further to the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU on 1 January 2007. 2) Italy, the Czech Republic and Sweden will each receive a reasoned opinion for failing to transpose directive 2003/58/EC, which modifies European rules on advertising obligations for certain forms of company, before the end of 2006. 3) Belgium has not communicated its transposition measures for directive 2006/48/EC, which lays down new rules for requirements in terms of own funds for credit institutions. The Commission will send Belgium a reasoned opinion. 4) The same goes for Ireland, which has not executed a Court ruling obliging it to observe directive 2006/115/EC on rental and lending rights.
Cereals. The Commission has decided to close infringement proceedings against France concerning old restrictions on cereal harvesters. The French authorities have relaxed national rules on this harvest. Companies concerned need no longer be domiciled in France, or have any minimum storage capacity or activity.
Television broadcast licences. Further to a reasoned opinion from the Commission, the Länder of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein have made changes to their regional legislation on the granting of television broadcast licences. Amongst other things, they have removed the preference granted to candidates who carry out the production and technical development of their programmes on local territory. In Lower Saxony, the two large private chains are no longer obliged to contribute to the local media. The Commission has therefore decided to close this dossier. (M.B./A.B.)