14 Transposition of single market Directives
| (25883)
11852/04
SEC(04) 918
| Commission Recommendation on the transposition into national law of Directives affecting the internal market
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| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 12 July 2004
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| Deposited in Parliament | 17 August 2004
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| Department | Trade and Industry
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 13 September 2004
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| Previous Committee Report | None; but see (24520) 9250/03: HC 63-xxv (2002-03), para 12 (18 June 2003)
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| To be discussed in Council | 24 September 2004
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
14.1 In May 2003 in its Communication "Internal Market Strategy
— Priorities 2003-2006" the Commission said it would
be issuing a Recommendation setting out best practice to assist
Member States in improving transposition of single market Directives.
It said there was a need for this because of significant problems
in some Member States in transposing Directives both correctly
and on time.[28]
The document
14.2 The present document is the Recommendation foreshadowed by
the Commission in May 2003. It suggests Member States should:
- identify the causes of persistent breaches of their obligation
to transpose Directives correctly and on time and remedy them;
- examine the 27 best practices annexed to the
Recommendation and, having regard to their national institutional
traditions, adopt those practices leading to improvement in the
speed or quality of transposition of single market Directives;
- publish, in a timely manner, lists of single
market Directives whose full transposition is late, and inform
businesses and citizens that they may, in certain circumstances,
have legal rights under Directives whose full transposition is
late;
- ensure that draft national implementing provisions
submitted to national Parliaments are accompanied by a declaration
of full or partial transposition of the Directive and of compliance
with Community law and make a similar declaration to the Commission
when notifying it of implementation; and
- refrain from adding unnecessary additional requirements
to national implementing legislation and, similarly, if implementation
of the Directive is part of a wider national legislative exercise,
ensure that this does not cause the transposition deadline to
be missed.
The Government's view
14.3 The Minister of State for Industry and the Regions
and Deputy Minister for Women and Equality, Department of Trade
and Industry (Jacqui Smith) says:
"This is a list of recommendations only, and
it is for each Member State to draw on it as they feel appropriate.
Exactly how Member States transpose Internal Market Directives
is still, ultimately, a decision for them, subject to their Article
10 TEC obligation. It can be noted that many of the recommendations
are already part of the transposition process in the UK and have
assisted us in being one of the better performers consistently
meeting transposition targets since they were set at the Barcelona
Summit in March 2002, and it can only help our businesses and
citizens if other Member States improve their transposition performance."
Conclusion
14.4 We are pleased to see the Commission attempting
again to improve the transposition rate of Directives relevant
to the single market. As we have said in relation to the regular
reports on progress in the single market, most recently on 9 September
2004, we are dismayed at the failure of some Member States to
address properly their single market obligations.[29]
We suggest that, when castigating recalcitrant Member States (as
we have urged), the Minister points out the value of the Commission's
Recommendation.
14.5 We clear the document.
28 (24520) 9250/03: See headnote. Back
29
See (25858) 11566/04: HC 42-xxx (2003-04), para 10 (9 September
2004). Back
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