Founder nations 'worst at implementing EU laws'

Some of the European Union’s most vocal advocates of greater integration have the worst performance in actually implementing EU laws on the single market, the EU’s head office said.

Among the older 15 member states, Ireland, Britain, Denmark, Spain, and Finland met target figures.

The six founding members of the European Union – France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – plus Greece had the worst track record among the 15 nations that made up the bloc prior to its recent expansion, the European Commission said.

“Member states have the key role in applying agreed rules on time,” said EU Internal Market Commission Frits Bolkestein. “Some are consistently worse than others and need more political commitment to meeting legal obligations. Everyone loses if some do not play by the rules.”

The first indications for the 10 countries that joined the EU on May 1 show “big disparities” the commission said, adding that direct comparisons were not yet possible.

France, which along with Germany has been in the vanguard of pressing for expanding EU integration into areas such as defence and taxation, had the worst record of the EU-15, failing to enact as many as 62 mandates on time, or 4.1%.

Lithuania has 12 directives left to implement, while Malta has more than 600.

The commission said France and Italy together accounted for 30% of all infringement cases filed by Brussels for failing to correctly implement EU laws.

Italy has almost 150 pending cases, more than Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg and Portugal combined.