Press Release: Internal Market Scoreboard shows progress, but trade obstacles remain

According to the latest Internal Market Scoreboard, there are still significant delays in implementing at national level many pieces of EU law approved by Member States' Ministers in the Council and by the European Parliament. Only seven Member States (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain) currently meet the target set by EU leaders at the Stockholm European Council in Spring 2001, of having an implementation deficit of 1.5 % or less: in other words, of having passed into national law at least 98.5 % of Internal Market Directives. The UK and Belgium have made particularly good progress in the last six months to achieve the target, while France, Greece, Germany and Ireland are furthest away from the target. The Commission also urges Member States to devote more attention to proper application in practice of Internal Market rules so as to reduce the practical problems encountered by companies and citizens seeking to take advantage of their rights within the Internal Market. The Scoreboard puts the spotlight on technical barriers to the free movement of goods within the Internal Market. The analysis suggests that where barriers persist (e.g. in construction products), the overall economic performance of the sector is held back. The results of a price survey on general grocery and household items indicate wide price differences across Europe. For the same product, consumers in some Member States can pay more than twice as much as consumers in other Member States.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/internal_market/en/update/score/index.htm http://ec.europa.eu/comm/internal_market/en/update/score/index.htm

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