92001E2123

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2123/01

by Mihail Papayannakis (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(13 July 2001)

Subject: Transposition of Community legislation into the law of the Member States

According to the biannual scoreboard published by the Commission, there are significant delays in the transposition of Community legislation into the Member States. In particular, 11 % of Community legislation enacted is not transposed into the national law of the Member States within the specified deadlines, and only three Member States (Sweden, Denmark and Finland) seem to be honouring the commitment made at the Lisbon Summit to transpose 98,5 % of Community legislation into their national law by 2002. According to Commissioner Bolkestein, the following countries, in declining order, are in danger of not attaining the target of transposing Community legislation by March 2002: Greece, France, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Austria and Germany.

Given the above data, will the Commission say whether it considers that Portugal's decision to appoint a person with exclusive responsibility for transposing Community legislation into its national law is an effective measure and whether it intends to propose that other Member States adopt a similar approach to ensure that they attain the goal set at the Lisbon Summit?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(17 September 2001)

It is for Member States to decide how they wish to organise themselves with a view to transposing Community legislation into national law. Some Member States, such as Portugal, Sweden and Luxembourg, have appointed national transposition co-ordinators who are responsible for ensuring that steps are taken to transpose Community legislation on time. The results from the May 2001 Internal Market Scoreboard reveal that these Member States have reduced their transposition deficits successfully.

Sweden's deficit of 0,5 % is the lowest of all Member States. Luxembourg and Portugal, with deficits of 2 % and 2,7 % respectively, have each moved up four places in the overall ranking since they appointed a national transposition co-ordinator.

The Commission encourages the exchange of best practice on transposition, such as the appointment of transposition co-ordinators and/or regular reporting on progress to national parliaments, particularly through the Internal Market Advisory Committee. It expects Member States to consider these experiences as part of their efforts to attain the 1,5 % deficit target set by the European Council for Spring 2002.