Ireland has topped the latest EU Internal Market Scoreboard which measures Member States’ success in converting EU law into domestic legislation. The Minister of State for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton TD, welcomed Ireland’s best score to date; saying was a significant achievement for Ireland to be the only member state to achieve full marks. The scoreboard measures the success of EU countries in enacting legislation that aims to improve the functioning of the Single Market which will be the key driver of future growth in Europe.
Minister Creighton said: ‘The Single Market is one of the core achievements of the EU, giving citizens access to a wide variety of competitively priced goods and services and also the opportunity to live, study, work and do business across the EU. Its success is dependent upon the effective enactment of EU legislation and it is the responsibility of every Member State to ensure they play their part. As the results of this scoreboard show, Ireland is certainly doing that.’
‘This is a further reaffirmation of this Government’s positive engagement with Europe and confirms that Ireland is once again leading by example during our EU Presidency."
ENDS
Note to Editors:
The Spring 2013 Internal Market Scoreboard (covering the second half of 2012) is due to be published today, 19th February, by the European Commission.
This will be announced by Commissioner Barnier on the fringes of the Competitiveness Council.This scoreboard measures compliance by Member States in converting EU legislation into domestic legislation and for the second half of last year Ireland was the only member state which had converted all legislation within deadline. This followed on from the previous six month period when Ireland had been placed second across member states.
The Minister of State for European Affairs chairs an interdepartmental committee that meets regularly to monitor Ireland’s engagement with the European Union and, as part of its responsibilities, monitors Ireland’s record in transposing EU legislation.
Examples of recently transposed Directives and the expected benefits from them:
Directive 2008/104/EC on temporary agency work
This Directive 2008/104/EC was transposed by the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act. This legislation applies the principle of equal treatment in terms of basic working and employment conditions for agency workers as for directly recruited employees recruited doing the same or a similar work.
Directive 2010/84/EU on pharmacovigilance
The new pharmacovigilance (monitoring of safety of medicines) legislation which came into effect in July 2012 aims to reduce adverse reactions to medicines and to improve the safe and effective use of medicines. It will do this by improving the current pharmacovigilance system in the EU, increasing the options for reporting of adverse reactions, improving transparency and introducing special provisions for medicines that need additional monitoring. The legislation also aims to increase the opportunities for members of the public to become better informed about the benefits and risks of taking medicines as well as providing a legal basis for direct reporting of suspected adverse reactions by patients.
Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation.
This Directive is intended to achieve a better functioning of the internal market and will assist authorities in assessing taxes correctly and preventing and combating tax fraud and tax evasion.