EU countries fail on law implementation
By Honor Mahony
Just two member states have reached the EU's politically agreed targets for implementing internal market law.
Lithuania and Spain are the only member states of the 25-union club that have managed to have less that 1.5 percent of internal market laws not implemented.
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Other countries which were leading the field last year - including Denmark, Finland, the UK and Ireland - have since slipped down the scale.
The figures show that since enlargement in May, all of the old member states - bar France, Germany and the Netherlands - have got worse.
The report, published on Thursday (27 January) is just the latest in a series of statistics published over recent years which show member states dragging their feet on implementing laws to do with the internal market.
This laggardness on the part of governments also makes it harder to fulfil the Lisbon strategy - the EU's embattled aim to be the most competitive economy in the world by 2010.
Presenting the results, internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy said "implementation does not just mean passing laws in obscure rooms in Brussels. It means getting those laws on to the national statute books on time".
While he praised Germany and France - with 40 and 50 laws respectively to be implemented - for the big improvement since the last internal market scoreboard last year, he called the results for those who had slipped down the scale a "disappointing score".
According to Mr McCreevy, much of it comes down to political will. "When the political will is there, they are able to make dramatic progress".
"Miraculously, the directives can get transposed pretty quickly", added the Commissioner.
While a new member state tops the good end of the spectrum, they are also present at the other end.
The Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovakia and Malta are the member states with the most laws to still to implement. Prague alone has 151 laws to go.
However, at the time of enlargement, Prague had 209 laws to implement while Malta had 522 - it now has 95.
The worst of the 'old' member states is Greece with 80 laws still awaiting transposition.
Mr McCreevy conceded that Brussels has often repeated its plea for member states to get their internal market legislation in order but was reluctant to take strong action against the worst offending states.
Mr McCreevy said that the European Court of Justice is the "end game" for misbehaving member states although, as he admitted, by the time it actually gets to the EU's highest court, member states have generally implemented the offending legislation.
He said he would "consider" whether in the future the European Commission would publish the warning letters it sends to member states when the they are falling behind on their duties.