Commissie vraagt Spanje en Slovenië om volledige uitvoering financiële richtlijn (en)

The European Commission has decided to refer Spain to the European Court of Justice for failing to implement in full the Commission Directive on the transparency of financial relations between Member States and public undertakings (2000/52/EC amending Directive 80/723/EEC, see IP/00/763 ). Spain had previously been formally requested to fully implement the Directive within two months from the reasoned opinion sent in March 2005 (see IP/05/345 ) but has not yet complied with this request.

The Commission has also issued a formal request to Slovenia to fully implement the original Financial Transparency Directive 80/723/EEC and the three amending Directives (85/413/EEC, 93/84/EEC and 2000/52/EC). The formal request takes the form of a reasoned opinion, the second stage of the infringement procedure under Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If Slovenia does not take the necessary measures to comply with the reasoned opinion within two months of receipt, the Commission may refer it to the European Court of Justice.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes i commented: "European citizens deserve high-quality services. It is in the taxpayers' interest to ensure that public money is used to pay for providing public services, rather than being illicitly diverted to subsidise commercial activities. All Member States therefore have to implement the Transparency Directives to allow the Commission to scrutinise the accounts of undertakings which deliver services of general interest or enjoy special or exclusive rights, and so guard against abuses ".

Commission Directive 80/723/EEC imposes a general transparency obligation on financial relations between public authorities and public undertakings. The Directive (as amended in 1985 and 1993) also requires Member States to collect and submit to the Commission, upon request, certain financial data of large public undertakings active in the manufacturing sector.

Commission Directive 2000/52/EC extended the transparency requirements to cover the obligation of maintaining separate accounts for public and private companies which, on one hand, operate services of general economic interest or are entrusted with special or exclusive rights and, on the other hand, also carry out commercial activities. Thus, the Directive provides the Commission with the necessary tools to investigate alleged over-compensation of public service obligations as well as cross-subsidisation of commercial activities. Member States had to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with Directive 2000/52/EC by 31 July 2001. New Member States were required to implement the original Directive and its three amendments as of the date of accession to the European Union (1 May 2004). More than five years after the deadline for Spain and more than two and a half years for Slovenia they have not yet fully implemented the requirements of the Directive.

Commission Directive 2006/111/EC of 16 November 2006 codified and repealed the original Directive and its amendments (including the amendment of 2005) as of its entry into force on 20 December 2006. This has no impact on the infringement procedures against Spain and Slovenia.