Completion of the internal market 1993-2000

By the deadline, most of the 1992 target had been met. Over 90 % of the legislative projects listed in the 1985 White Paper had been adopted, largely by using the majority rule. They included:

§ full liberalisation of capital movements,

§ total abolition of checks on goods at internal frontiers,

§ abolition of routine checks on people at internal frontiers,

§ major progress in the practical aspects of introducing freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services, through harmonisation and mutual recognition of rules in vital industries such as banking and insurance, mutual recognition of diplomas for access to the regulated professions, and by opening up public markets.

- Though generally successful, there were some serious failures:

§ legislative omissions: the 10% or so measures not adopted included some very important ones, such as total abolition of controls on persons, the statute for the European company, full liberalisation of transport services, and tax harmonisation; in addition, some proposals not contained in the 1985 programme but added later as necessary for completion of the internal market, such as liberalisation of public service sectors, telecommunications, electricity, gas, postal services and the establishment of trans-European networks,

§ failures to transpose legislation: a significant part of the adopted directives that formed the backbone of legislation on the internal market were not transposed into national law, or were badly transposed,

§ failures in implementation (highlighted by the Sutherland report in October 1992, drawn up at the Commission's request): acts that had been properly transposed as scheduled were sometimes badly implemented by national administrations, either because some of their provisions were overlooked in administrative practice, or were differently interpreted from one country to another; moreover operators and consumers affected by these failures did not always have access to rapid and effective means of redress.

After 1992 the Commission stepped up its efforts to secure full completion of the internal market.

- It regularly submitted reports reviewing the results obtained and launched action programmes to complete projects that were still pending. Apart from the annual reports on the state of progress and operation of the single market, it is worth mentioning:

§ the Communication of 2 December 1992 on operation of the Community single market after 1992,,

§ the Communication of 2 June 1993 on improving the effectiveness of the single market, which formed the basis of the strategic programme of 22 December 1993 on making the most of the single market,

§ the Communication of 30 October 1996 entitled The impact and effectiveness of the single market, which served as the basis for the Action plan for the single market of 4 June 1997.

The latter set out to make good all the failings in completion of the internal market, whether in legislation or national transposition and implementation of the law, by the date for launching the single currency, 1 January 1999. To do so it proposes a series of 62 ‘actions’, to be carried out on a calendar with precise deadlines monitored every six months on a progress chart. This method proved to be effective and many of the objectives were achieved. The progress chart continues to be published twice a year, most recently in November 2000.

§ The most recent action plan to date, entitled 'The strategy for Europe's internal market', was launched on 24 November 1999 in the form of a communication to the European Parliament and the Council. This action plan combines medium and short-term perspectives, laying down strategic objectives to be achieved over the next five years (up to 2004) by means of 'targeted measures' to be taken over 18-month periods and reviewed annually.

- While providing this impetus the Commission also took repressive action by stepping up its powers under Article 226 (169) of the EC Treaty for prosecuting infringements by the Member States which were

§ delaying transposition of directives,

§ transposing them incorrectly, or

§ implementing them badly.

As a result, the number of ‘default notices’, the first stage of infringement proceedings, leading to a reasoned opinion and then referral to the Court of Justice, has consistently exceeded an annual figure of 200 since 1995 peaking to almost 400 in 1997 (276 for the period from March 1999 to March 2000).

02.10.2012