Country data: Czechia

All comparisons are with the figures for 10 December 2020, the previous reporting date.

The last 2 years, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Member State authorities to address pressing priorities and affected their performance in transposing EU rules to some degree. In this context, the Commission has taken a number of extraordinary measures aimed at relieving the strain on Member States’ administrative resources. Nevertheless, it has also made clear that the Member States’ legal obligations to transpose EU directives in time remain unchanged.

 

Transposition deficit (percentage of all directives not transposed): 2.4% (last report: 1.5%) – a marked increase of 0.9 percentage points and the third highest deficit in the reporting period. Czechia is one of six Member States whose deficit is more than double the 1% target set by the European Council.
EU average = 1.6%; proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

From 2012 (except in 2016 and 2017 when Member States had to transpose an unusually high number of directives), Czechia consistently performed well on this criterion. However, it has been back above the 1% threshold for 2 years. In addition, Czechia did not transpose 16 of the 26 single market directives (62%) due to have been transposed in the 6 months before the cut-off date for calculating the deficit (1 June to 30 November 2021). This shows that Czechia may have some difficulties organising the timely transposition of directives. Constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not help. However, transposition is an ongoing process and any let-up may result in the deficit quickly increasing.

Overdue directives: 24 (last report: 15), including 7 on transport, 4 on financial services and 4 on connectivity/media/digital society. One directive is more than 2 years overdue (Directive 2012/34/EU establishing a single European railway area).

Average delay in transposing directives: 8.8 months (last report: 6.2 months) – an increase of 2.6 months. Czechia’s average delay is now longer than the EU average.               
EU average = 8.6 months

Adding 1 very long-overdue directive (due for more than 6 years) to its particularly high backlog was partly offset by 17 out of the 23 other outstanding directives being overdue by less than 6 months.

Conformity deficit (percentage of all directives transposed incorrectly): 2.3% (last report: 2%) – an increase of 0.3 percentage points. This is Czechia’s highest deficit ever and the highest deficit among Member States.
EU average = 1.3%; proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

The number of new infringement proceedings that the Commission has launched against Member States for incorrectly transposing single market directives has more than halved in 2 years. Nevertheless, the number of ongoing cases is still high. With 22 directives presumed to have been incorrectly transposed, Czechia’s deficit is almost double the EU average. It is also one of five Member States that have both a high transposition deficit and a high percentage of incorrectly transposed directives.

Evolution of transposition deficit

 

Evolution of conformity deficit

 

All comparisons are with the figures for 1 December 2020, the previous reporting date.

 

Pending single market cases: 33 (5 new cases and 3 cases closed; last report: 31 pending cases) – a small increase of 2 cases; Czechia is now above the EU average.       
EU average = 27 cases

Czechia is the only Member State whose number of pending cases increased in the reporting period, although only moderately (+6%). It has not had this many pending cases since May 2010.

The Commission launched 120 new cases against Member States in the reporting period (besides those for late transposition), and these were still pending on 1 December 2021. A total of 5 cases were launched against Czechia, which is above the EU average of 4 new cases launched in the reporting period. In addition, only 3 Czech cases have been resolved since December 2020 (the EU average is 8).

Problematic sectors: the environment (11 cases), including 4 on atmospheric pollution; transport and energy (4 cases each). Together, these make up 58% of all pending cases.

Average case duration: 48.7 months for the 33 single market cases not yet sent to the European Court of Justice (last report: 48.2 months) – this is a slight increase of 0.5 months and above the EU average. Czechia is in the top five of Member States with the longest average case duration.  
EU average = 42.8 months

Czechia’s average case duration has increased by 20% in 3 years. The country recently resolved a 16-year-old case on air transport. However, a third of the Czech pending cases (11/33) have been running for 5 years or longer (the oldest case, on air pollution, has been running for 12 years). These have a considerable effect on the calculation of the average duration despite the launch of 5 new cases (whose average duration is less than a year).

Time taken to comply with Court rulings: 13.8 months for the four single market cases at the Court-ruling stage of the procedure and closed in the last 5 years (last report: same).        
EU average = 46.8 months

There has been no change since the previous period. Czechia took between 6 and 30 months to comply with the four cases mentioned. It is the only Member State (along with Italy) that is in line with the 18-month indicative target to comply with Court rulings. It now has the second shortest time lag among the 23 Member States that complied with the Court’s judgments in the last 5 years.

Evolution of infringement cases

Performance – Czechia performed very well.

• Results for all indicators were above the EEA average.
• Results for two indicators improved, especially for requests replied within the deadline.
• Requests replied within 1 week declined noticeably.

• Caseload – medium
  Submitted cases – 65 (60 in 2020)
  Received cases – 40 (17 in 2020)

• Cases not accepted – 65 (61 in 2020)

• Resolution rate – 95% (82% in 2020)
• Handling time (home centre)
  Reply in 7 days: 85% (87% in 2020) – good
  Cases prepared in 30 days: 78% (92% in 2020) – good
  Solutions accepted within 7 days: 64% (80% in 2020) – poor

• Cases not accepted within 30 days: 46% (56% in 2020) – very  poor

• Handling time (lead centre)
  Cases accepted within 7 days: 87% (76% in 2020) – good
  Cases closed in 10 weeks: 66% (75% in 2020) – poor
• Staffing
  sufficient

In 2022, the average payment delay (the time exceeding the legal or contractually agreed payment terms) by Czech public authorities was 10 days.

The average number of days needed for a business to have its invoices paid by other businesses (business-to-business payments) was 51.71 days.

Indicator	2021	EU average
Burden of government regulation (survey replies: 1 = worst, 7 = best)	3.0	3.6
Digital public services to start and run a business (100% = best performing)	80.8%	n/a
Payment delays by public authorities	10 days	15.7 days
Time to resolve insolvency	2.1 years	2.0 years
Impact of regulation on long-term investment decisions (survey replies)	10.7%	n/a

Indicator	2021	EU average
Single bidder	40%	25%
No calls for bids	10%	6%
Publication rate (value advertised on Tenders Electronic Daily, in % of GDP)	4.9%	5.9%
Cooperative procurement (proportion of procedures with more than one buyer)	5%	5%
Award criteria (proportion of procedures awarded to cheapest bid)	80%	64%
Decision speed (days)	107	99
SME contractors	69%	61%
SME bids	96%	73%
Procedures divided into lots	18%	31%
Missing calls for bids	1%	1%
Missing seller registration numbers	7%	29%
Missing buyer registration numbers	3%	11%

Note: A typical (mid-ranking) EU country is used for the EU average for all indicators except the publication rate. Due to delays in data availability, publication rate results are based on 2020 data.

Indicator	2021	EU average
Restrictiveness indicator – architect	3.2	2.5
Restrictiveness indicator – accountant	1.6	1.7
Restrictiveness indicator – civil engineer	3.1	2.4
Restrictiveness indicator – lawyer	3.7	3.4
Restrictiveness indicator – real estate agent	2.0	1.3
Restrictiveness indicator – patent agent	2.0	2.2
Restrictiveness indicator – tourist guide	0.5	1.2
Domestic priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 0.72	€ 0.88
Intra-EU priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 1.47	€ 1.53
Domestic transit times, day+1 performance, priority letters 20 g (2020)	92.6%	84.2%

Note: The EU restrictiveness indicator (EURI) measures the level of restrictiveness for the cross-border provision of services and the right of establishment for seven groups of professional services with a high share in EU firms’ intermediate consumption or cross-border mobility. The level of restrictiveness is measured on a scale from 0 (least restrictive) to 6 (most restrictive).

Indicator	2021	EU average
Access to public financial support (% of SMEs indicating deterioration)	12.6%	11.3%
Time to get paid by businesses (2022 survey)	51.7 days	52.5 days
Venture capital investments (% of GDP)	0.32%	0.48%