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The European Commission has decided to pursue infringement procedures against Cyprus and another 11 Member States for failure to implement certain Internal Market Directives into national law.
The Commission will refer Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain to the European Court of Justice over non-implementation of a Directive on recognition of professional qualifications.
Denmark will also be sent a reasoned opinion on the same grounds. The Netherlands will be referred to the Court over non-implementation of a Directive on transparency obligations of listed companies, as will the United Kingdom over non-implementation of a Directive on motor insurance.
Finally, the Commission has decided, under Article 228 of the EC Treaty, to send a letter of formal notice to Luxembourg requesting information on its compliance with a previous Court judgement concerning implementation of a Directive on public procurement.
Recognition of professional qualifications – Belgium, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Cyprus, Austria, Portugal and Denmark
The Commission has decided to take eight Member States, namely Belgium, Ireland, Greece, France, Cyprus, Austria and Portugal, to the Court of Justice for failure to communicate measures transposing Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications. The Commission has also decided to send a reasoned opinion to Denmark on the same grounds.
This Directive stems from the reform of the system for the recognition of professional qualifications launched by the Commission to help make labour markets more flexible, to further open up the supply of services, to encourage greater automatic recognition of qualifications and to simplify administrative procedures.
The Directive merges into a single legislative act fifteen individual directives, including twelve sectoral directives covering the professions of doctor, general care nurse, dentist, veterinary surgeon, midwife and architect and three directives establishing a general system for the recognition of professional qualifications covering most other regulated professions. It simplifies the structure of the system for the recognition of qualifications and improves the way it operates. It thus aims to facilitate mobility in the single market for qualified persons who move to another Member State to provide a service or to establish themselves there permanently.
The deadline for transposition of Directive 2005/36/EC was 20 October 2007.
Transparency of listed companies – Netherlands
In the absence of national transposition of the Directive on transparency obligations of listed companies within the prescribed deadlines, the Commission has decided to bring a case before the European Court of Justice against the Netherlands.
The Directive on transparency obligations of listed companies (Directive 2004/109/EC) requires issuers of securities in regulated markets within the EU to ensure appropriate transparency for investors through a regular flow of information by disclosing periodic and on-going regulated information and by disseminating such information to the public throughout the Community. The Directive was due to be implemented by 20 January 2007, while the deadline for the implementation of the Commission's implementing measures which supplement this text (Commission Directive 2007/14/EC of 8 March 2007) was 9 March 2008.
Motor insurance – United Kingdom
The Commission has decided to refer the United Kingdom to the European Court of Justice over its failure to implement in national law the Fifth Motor insurance Directive 2005/14/EC by the agreed date of 11 June 2007.
The Directive updates and improves the EU legal framework for motor insurance by introducing some new rights for policyholders and by upgrading the protection of traffic accident victims. In the absence of adequate implementation of the Directive, road traffic accident victims as well as policyholders will not be able to benefit from their new rights.
Public procurement – Luxembourg
The Commission has decided, under Article 228 of the EC Treaty, to send a letter of formal notice to Luxembourg requesting information on its compliance with the judgement of the European Court of Justice in case C-268/07. The Court stated in this judgement that Luxembourg had not transposed Directive 2004/17/EC on public procurement, and had therefore failed to comply with its obligations under EC law. Indeed, the deadline for transposition of the Directive was 31 January 2006. To date, the Commission has still not received any implementing measures from the Luxembourg authorities.
