Applying Community law better - Main contents

IP/09/1934

Brussels, 15 December 2009

Applying Community law better

The European Commission has presented today its Annual Report on monitoring the Application of Community Law (2008). The report analyses how the implementation, management and enforcement of European Union law contribute to the process of legislative changes. It highlights the extensive nature of the problem of the late transposition by Member States of directives into their law and suggests an inter-institutional dialogue on the causes and possible ways of reducing this problem. It emphasizes the importance of attention being paid to implementation planning and enforcement mechanisms in the development of new legislation, it draws attention to the variety of management and enforcement tools available to ensure the correct application of European Union law.

The European Union manages more than 10.000 legal acts in force in 27 Member States. Challenges are inevitably many and varied, the infringement process playing an essential role in guaranteeing the correct application of European Union Law. At the end of 2008, the Commission was handling over 3400 infringement files, the same as in 2007. The number of infringement cases based on complaints increased of 9% on the previous year. The Commission points to the fact that it has accelerated the progress of infringements management to achieve an average of 24 months to complete a file compared with the 27 month average reported for previous years. It confirms the high percentage of issues resolved without need for recourse to the European Court of Justice (94% of complaints closed before a ruling of the ECJ). The sectors which have the most significant case load continue to be environment, internal market, taxation, energy and transport and employment.

Priority areas of action

The report emphasises four main issues:

Late transposition : The Commission suggests an inter-institutional dialogue on the causes and possible ways of reducing wide-spread late transposition by Member States of directives into Member State law. Late transposition continues to constitute a serious obstacle to the timely application of Community law. 55% of required transpositions were late in 2008.

The regulatory cycle : Community law develops over time passing through a sequence of stages including implementation and enforcement mechanisms. The report underlines the importance of implementation planning and enforcement mechanisms in the development of new legislation and gives some examples of the contribution they make to legislative cycles.

Management of the law : It is important to develop and apply the most appropriate management and enforcement tools to ensure the correct application of Community law. Increased recourse has been made to preventive measures in the form of expert meetings or bilateral Commission/Member State meetings to identify issues to avoid that they later become problems.

Furthermore the Commission underlines that t he correct application of the law can be improved by priorities in the management of infringement proceedings to maximize the benefits for citizens and business. The Report confirms that the Commission will continue to work accordingly to the priorities identified in the accompanying document "Situation in the different Sectors".

Background

Following a request made by the European Parliament the Commission presents, every year, since 1984, an annual report on monitoring the application of Community law during the preceding year.

In 2007 in its Communication on 'A Europe of Result - Applying Community Law' COM (2007) 502, the Commission announced it would give the annual report a new focus on strategic issues, evaluation of the current state of the law, priorities and programming of future work.

The European Parliament adopts, every year, a report on the Commission report, explaining its position on the main issues.

The 26 th Annual Report on Monitoring the Application of Community Law (2008) and the accompanying documents are available on Europa website:

http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/infringements/infringements_annual_report_en.htm