Brussels, 27/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 26 November, the European Commission presented the MEPs of the committee on the internal market and consumer protection of the European Parliament with a report on the state of play with the transposition of the directive on services in the internal market. Amongst other things, it reported back on the single market information system, which will reinforce administrative cooperation when the European legislation is implemented as of 2010.
“Three years” to implement the services directive may seem like a long time, but we have already come “a third of the way” before the application of the European legislation, said the Commission representative. He detailed the preparatory work underway between the Commission and the member states:
- the organisation of “bilateral meetings” with the competent national authorities to review the problems; - the organisation of “expert meetings (six in 2007) on specific subjects” such as the creation of “one-stop shops”, the use of “electronic procedures” and the screening process, whereby the member states are to carry out an assessment of the cohesion between their national legislation and European rules. On this point, the Commission representative said that various member states were realising that the creation of the one-stop shops was an expensive business, hence their tendency to use these one-stop shops as simple information points, which will not carry out a certain number of proceedings on behalf of businesses. These one-stop shops must “not just be information points”, but real centres providing assistance and advice, stressed British Conservative Malcolm Harbour, who described himself as “disappointed” with what the British government has proposed for the United Kingdom in this field.
The Commission representative assured the MEPs that the manual recently put online by the services of the internal market is “a technical document on the directive”, which “makes no claims to be a binding document - far from it”. He went on to add: “It must be taken for what it is - a technical cooperation document and not a document of interpretation. The only European institution competent to interpret it is the European Court of Justice”. This explanation was satisfactory to German Social Democrat Evelyne Gebhardt, who was the EP rapporteur on the “services directive”. It is “very good at the Commission is stating that the manual is just an aid”, she said. But, like Marianne Thyssen (EPP-ED, Belgium), she voiced her regret that not all of the language versions are available at this time. Other questions linked to problems with the transposition of the “services” directive also related to the interoperability of the technologies used and the codes of conduct which may be set in place by the economic operators in order to facilitate the cross-border provision of their services.
The Commission also gave a presentation of the internal market information system (IMI), which will facilitate everyday cooperation between the national authorities in charge of the implementation of the “services” directive. Taking its inspiration from a system which proved its worth with the European directive on professional qualifications, this system aims to remove the following obstacles: language barriers, lack of clear identification of contact persons within an administration, differences between administrative organisation from one member state to another, the absence of concerted cooperation procedures and the existence of excessive lead times for answers to requests for information. A pilot project is soon to be launched with four medical professions, including doctors, physiotherapists and pharmacists. (M.B.)