Press Release: Internal Market Scoreboard: Member States still on target but need to focus on correct application of rules

Member States continued to perform well in implementing agreed Internal Market rules into national law on time, according to the European Commission’s latest Internal Market Scoreboard published on 16 July, 2009. For the third consecutive time, 1.0% of Internal Market Directives for which the implementation deadline has passed were not currently written into national law. This means that Member States were again in line with the 1.0% target agreed by Heads of State, which was to be achieved by 2009 at the latest. In total, 18 Member States were either at or below the new target, while 13 Member States achieved their best score so far. Overall Denmark and Malta were the best performers, but Greece and Poland are bottom of the league. However, Member States too often failed to implement the rules correctly in national law and then to apply them properly once they are in force: the number of infringement cases remained high, and they take too long to resolve. This Scoreboard also devoted particular attention to the effective application of public procurement rules, recognising the importance of this area at the present time.