Veel lidstaten lopen achter met ratificatie Europese richtlijnen (en)
Auteur: Richard Carter
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission today lashed out at no fewer than 11 EU Member States for not implementing EU laws.
Only Germany, Denmark, Austria and Italy escaped the wrath of the Commission, which is still smarting over recent defeats on company takeover laws and the rules governing the euro.
France and Ireland face the possibility of daily fines from the Court of Justice because they have still not entered a 1998 European Directive on recognition of lawyers' qualifications into their national laws.
Meanwhile, another nine EU Member States are in hot water for failing to implement EU rules on copyright - agreed in 2001. The Commission is referring them to the Court of Justice as well.
Separately, Greece and Finland face legal action for not bringing their legislation into line with a directive on financial services.
Not playing ball
The issue of transposing European directives into national law is always thorny. The Commission frequently complains that the percentage of EU laws still not enacted in Member States - known in EU jargon as "the transposition deficit" is increasing.
This "transposition deficit" was up to 2.4 percent in May 2003 from 1.8 in May 2002. New figures are due out in January and are not expected to be better. EU leaders have set themselves a target of 1.5 percent.
EU Internal Market commissioner Frits Bolkestein complained today, "As long as even one Member State has not implemented a Directive, citizens and businesses across Europe are denied the full benefit of the measures their governments have agreed to break down national red tape and unlock the full wealth creation potential of the Internal Market".
"So Member States need to shoulder their responsibilities and respect the implementation deadlines that they themselves have set, in their own interests and that of the credibility of the Union as a whole".