Brussels, 08/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - EU competitiveness ministers met informally in Prague on Tuesday 5 May 2009 to reflect on the future of the Internal Market, which Czech industry and trade minister Martin Riman said was one of the lynchpins of the European Union that would help member states escape from the economic crisis. He outlined the importance of transposing the services directive before the end of the year, adding that the Czech Republic itself would complete its legislation to this end in September, or October at the latest. He said the current situation could be seen as a strong boost to the process of deregulating the Internal Market to help EU companies grow by up to 10% in the next decade. EU Enterprise Commissioner Gunter Verheugen noted the importance of adopting the package of EU legislation on the free circulation of goods that introduces the notion of mutual recognition whereby products sold legally in any one member state can be freely sold anywhere in the EU (see EUROPE 9602 and 9601).
On reducing red tape for EU business, Riman said that work by the member states and the EU institutions had started to bear fruit in the move towards reducing red tape by a quarter by 2012. Some 24 countries, including the Czech Republic, have answered the European Commission's request that they continue working in this domain, he added. The Swedish Presidency of the EU for the second half of 2009 has made it clear that it wants to ensure this move is a success. Verheugen said that Commission would be publishing all the remaining draft legislation in the next few months required to achieve the 25% reduction in red tape and would be setting 'higher targets'. He reckoned the potential savings to business from the draft legislation already on the table would be in the order of €30 billion if it were implemented in all member states in its current form. The meeting was attended by US multinational Microsoft's manager for Europe, Jan Muhlseit, upon invitation from the Czech Presidency. (M.B./transl.fl)