The Commission has decided to bring Member States before the Court of Justice and to send reasoned opinions (the second stage of formal infringement procedures) in 14 cases where Member States have failed to meet their obligations to transpose Single Market Directives within the agreed deadlines. The cases concern Directives in the fields of recognition of qualifications, citizens' rights, public procurement, financial services, intellectual property and the elimination of frontier controls (firearms and works of art). With regard to the reasoned opinions, in the absence of a satisfactory response within two months following receipt by the Member State concerned, the Commission may refer the cases to the Court of Justice. Following notifications of national transposition measures for Single Market Directives, the Commission has also closed 27 infringement procedures. The Dublin European Council , recalled Single Market Commissioner Mario MONTI, stressed once again the essential role of the Internal Market in promoting growth and employment in the Union. On many occasions, I have personally drawn the attention of the Ministers concerned of the importance of accelerating full application of Single Market Directives. Despite the progress we have achieved which has allowed us to close a number of infringement cases, I remain concerned with persistent delays in the transposition and implementation of Directives . Recognition of qualifications The Commission has decided to send to Greece a reasoned opinion, the second stage of an infringement procedure under Article 171 of the EC Treaty, for failing to implement the Court of Justice ruling of 23 March 1995. In its ruling, the Court condemned Greece having failed to transpose Directive 89/48/EEC. This Directive, which entered into force on 4 January 1991, set up a general system of recognition of higher education qualifications which sanction vocational training courses of at least three-years duration. The Directive is intended to encourage free movement of persons within the European Union while ensuring that people wishing to practise their profession in another Member State do not have to qualify all over again. In this respect, the Directive is of direct benefit to the citizen. The basic principle of the general system of recognition of qualifications is that the host Member State cannot refuse access to a regulated profession to a Community national who is fully qualified to follow this same profession in his or her Member State of origin. The Commission noted that this Directive is still not implemented in Greece. This has very negative consequences for a number of Community nationals who are experiencing difficulties exercising their profession in Greece. The Commission has received numerous complaints on this subject. The Commission is therefore requesting Greece to conform finally to the Court ruling, and so remove the remaining obstacles to free movement of the professions. In the absence of satisfactory answer to the reasoned opinion within two months of receipt, the Commission could again refer the matter to the Court. In this case, the Commission could ask the Court to impose a financial penalty on Greece of an amount calculated on the basis of the seriousness of the infringement, its duration and the need to ensure a dissuasive effect. Still concerning Directive 89/48/EEC, following notification of national transposition measures, the Commission has closed the infringement procedure under Article 171 of the EC Treaty against Belgium for failure to conform with the ruling of the Court of Justice of 13 July 1995 concerning the failure to implement this Directive. With regard to Directive 92/51/EEC, which set up a second general system of recognition of qualifications corresponding to training periods of a duration of less than three years and therefore complements Directive 89/48/EEC, the Commission has closed three infringement procedure against the United Kingdom following the notification of implementing measures. It also closed the infringement procedures against Germany and France concerning Directive 94/38/EEC, which amends the annexes of regulated professions covered by Directive 92/51. Following the notification of national transposition measures, the Commission has also closed two infringement procedures against Spain for Directives 89/594/EEC and 90/658/EEC, concerning respectively the recognition of qualifications of doctors, nurses, dentists, midwives and veterinary surgeons and the adaptation of certain Directives on the recognition of doctors qualifications following German unification. Citizens' rights - municipal elections The Commission has decided to issue reasoned opinions against Finland, Austria and Sweden for failure to notify national implementing measures transposing Directives 94/80/EC and 96/30/EC. The Directive, which lays down the conditions under which EU nationals residing in another Member State may vote and stand as candidates in municipal elections, came into force on 1st January 1996. In the case of Finland implementation has so far been only partial in that the implementation law does not cover the Aland islands. As far as Austria is concerned, the Commission is still awaiting notification of implementation in the Länder of Steiermark and Voralberg. Following the notification of national transposition measures, the Commission has closed infringement procedures against Germany and Portugal for the two municipal elections Directives. Public procurement The Commission has decided to refer Belgium to the Court of Justice for having failed to fulfil its obligations to transpose Directive 93/38/EEC concerning procedures for the award of public procurement contracts in the sectors of water, of energy, of transport and of telecommunications. The Directive aims to ensure open and competitive procedures are followed in the award of works, supplies and service contracts in these sectors. The Directive stipulates that Member States must implement legislation, regulations and administration provisions necessary to conform to its provisions before 1 July 1994 and that they must immediately inform the Commission of these measures. Belgium put into effect on 1 July 1996, a Royal Decree of 18 June 1996 on the award of contracts by a series of contracting entities which are required to apply these rules. However, there is still no national legislative framework for some categories of contracting entities, in particular for private and public-sector companies which are not covered by the Royal Decree of 18 June 1996, but which are nevertheless contracting entities within the scope of Directive 93/38/EEC. As there was no satisfactory response to the letter of formal notice and the reasoned opinion sent to Belgium by the Commission during the earlier stages of the infringement procedure, the Commission has decided to refer Belgium to the Court of Justice for incomplete transposition of the Directive. Financial services The Commission decided to refer Belgium to the Court of Justice for having failed to fulfil its obligations to transpose Directive 90/232/EEC on insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles. The Directive aims to ensure that motorists enjoy civil liability cover valid throughout the EU on the basis of paying a single premium. The transposition deadline expired on 31 December 1992. Still in the field of insurance, the Commission has decided to close seven infringement procedures against Greece following the notification of national transposition measures for Directives 88/357/EEC (2nd Non-Life Insurance Directive), 90/618/EEC (freedom to provide motor civil liability insurance services), 90/619 (2nd Life Assurance Directive), 91/371 (Directive implementing of the non-life insurance Agreement between the EC and Switzerland), 91/674 (annual accounts and consolidated accounts of insurance companies), 92/49 (3rd Non-Life Insurance Directive) and 92/96 (3rd Life Assurance Directive). The Commission has decided to send a reasoned opinion to Portugal for failure to transpose the Directive on Capital Adequacy of credit institutions and investment firms (93/6/EEC). The Directive, which was due to be transposed before 1 July 1995 and enter into force on 1 January 1996, lays down measures aiming to ensure that market risks of credit institutions and of investment firms are covered by sufficient capital. At the same time, following notification of national transposition measures for Directive 93/6, Commission has closed infringement procedures against Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom . Following the notification of national transposition measures for the Investment Services Directive (93/22/EEC), the Commission has closed infringement procedures against France, Italy and Finland. Intellectual property The Commission decided to refer Ireland and Portugal to the Court of Justice for failing to communicate national measures to implement Directive 93/83/EEC on the coordination of certain rules concerning copyright and related rights applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission. For the same reason, the Commission has decided to send a reasoned opinion to Germany. However, following the notification of national implementing measures for Directive 93/83, the Commission has closed an infringement procedure against the Netherlands. The deadline for implementing the Directive was 1 January 1995. The Commission has decided to refer Portugal to the Court of Justice for failure to transpose Directive 92/100/EEC on rental rights and lending rights and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property (rights of performers, phonogram producers, film producers and broadcasters). Member States were due to implement the Directive no later than 1 July 1994. Following the notification of national measures transposing Directive 93/98/EEC, the Commission has closed an infringement procedure against Greece. Directive 93/98/EEC aims to eliminate disparities between national legislation governing the duration of protection of copyright (70 years from the death of the author) and of related rights. The Directive was due to be implemented before 1 July 1995. Elimination of the frontier controls (weapons and works of art) Noting that Austria and Finland have not adopted yet formal measures necessary for the transposition of Directive 91/477, which allowed the elimination of the frontier controls on persons for fire arms, the Commission has decided to address them each a reasoned opinion. The Directive fixes a number of rules concerning acquisition and possession of fire arms, requires intra-Community transfers of fire arms to observe certain procedures and give rise to exchanges of information between Member States and establishes a European fire arms certificate for trips within the Community, in particular for hunters and sports marksmen. The Commission has also decided to send a reasoned opinion to Austria for failure to transpose Directive 93/7/EEC, concerning the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State. The Directive aims to secure the return of national treasures of artistic, historical or archaeological value that have been unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State after the removal of controls on at internal borders. ***
