The EU average transposition deficit has decreased from 6.3 per cent in 1997 to a record new level of 0.6 per cent, i.e. below the 1.0 per cent target agreed by the European Heads of State and Government in 2007 and close to the 0.5 per cent deficit proposed in the Single Market Act in April 2011.

According to a press release issued by the Commission, the best performers are Ireland, Malta, Estonia and Sweden, which managed to incorporate into their national legislation the highest number of directives.

Member states have also succeeded in reducing the total number of incorrectly transposed directives (compliance deficit has fallen further from 0.7 per cent to 0.6 per cent). However, they have increased the number of directives for which transposition is overdue by two years or more.

Compared to November 2007, the number of open infringements is down by 38 per cent. Italy accounts for the highest number of infringement proceedings launched by the Commission, followed by Spain and Greece. The majority of cases continue to be mainly in the areas of taxation and the environment.

When all enforcement indicators are taken into account, Romania, Estonia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Lithuania are the best overall performers.

In total, 12 member states achieved or equalled their best result on the transposition deficit since 1997: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden, with Italy and Luxembourg falling for the first time under the 1 per cent threshold.

Today, member states take on average nine-and-a-half months to transpose EU directives after the transposition deadline has expired. With regard to directives more than two years beyond their transposition deadline, only five states did not meet the `zero tolerance` target.

As regards the infringement proceedings, Italy accounts for the highest number of infringement proceedings – ten times more than Lithuania, the member state with the lowest number of cases - followed by Spain and Greece. Environment and taxation account for 45 per cent of all infringement proceedings.

The Internal Market Scoreboard was first published 15 years ago.

Source: Cyprus Mail