Brussels, 29/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 29 January, the European Commission decided to continue with a series of infringement proceedings initiated against several member states for failing to comply with Community internal market provisions, especially in the fields of freedom of establishment, the awarding of public procurement contracts, services and money laundering.
Freedom of establishment. The Commission decided to take France before the Court of Justice concerning the incompatibility of French legal restrictions on the ownership of capital in biomedical laboratories. French legislation states that a non-biomedical firm may hold no more than one quarter of the shares of a company operating biomedical laboratories and prohibits any natural or legal person from holding shares in more than two firms set up in order to jointly operate one or more biomedical laboratories. The Commission considers that these restrictions limit the scope for partnerships, especially with legal persons in other member states, and the freedom of establishment in France of laboratories which are established in other member states but do not fulfil the criteria imposed by French legislation. The Commission has also decided to refer the case of the Netherlands to the Court of Justice as it has not yet adopted the law submitted by the government in order to abolish the condition of nationality for access and exercise of the notary profession.
Public procurement. The Commission has sent a reasoned opinion to Portugal concerning its legislation on the awarding of public procurement contracts for services, that it considers is not in line with the directives on public procurement. The legislation above all benefits legal persons compared to natural persons in the awarding of public service contracts for certain specific tasks. In the same vein, a reasoned opinion has been sent to Luxembourg concerning implementation of the directive on public procurement. A reasoned opinion has also been sent to Germany concerning attribution by the town of Rostock of contracts for waste elimination to the companies Entsorgungs- und Verwertungsgesellschaft mbH Rostock (EVG) and Stadtentsorgung Rostock GmbH (SRG), but without putting the contract to any competitive offers. Finally, the Commission decided to send a reasoned opinion to Italy concerning the awarding of a contract for banking services in favour of the University of Parma.
Services. The European Commission has sent a reasoned opinion to Luxembourg for its regulation setting out an obligation to obtain approval of establishment for a temporary service provider. A reasoned opinion was also sent to Greece concerning the implementation of provisions on postal service provision.
Money laundering. The Commission has decided to take France and Poland before the Court of Justice for failing to implement the 3rd money-laundering directive. Reasoned opinions will also be sent to Spain and Poland for not setting effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties in their national legislation as required by the regulation on information concerning the instructing party accompanying a transfer of funds.
Others. As Germany has recently adopted new legislative measures repealing the restrictions imposed earlier on the exercise of motor inspection activities and control of organic farming by EU farmers, the Commission has decided to officially close two infringement proceedings against it. (O.L./transl.jl)