Country data: Denmark

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): 0.4% (last report: 0.3%) – a slight increase of 0.1 percentage points. However, Denmark is the Member State with the lowest deficit (along with Germany) and achieves the proposed 0.5% target.      
EU average = 1.6%; proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

Denmark constantly performs well on this criterion. It is the only Member State that has achieved the 1% target every year in the past decade and beyond. In addition, it did not transpose only 2 of the 26 single market directives (8%) 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 Denmark organises the timely transposition of directives very well. Moreover, it has managed difficult situations including having to transpose an unusually high number of directives in 2016 and a possible lack of resources due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Overdue directives: 4 (last report: 3). One directive is more than 2 years overdue (Directive (EU) 2016/2370 amending Directive 2012/34/EU as regards the opening of the market for domestic passenger transport services by rail and the governance of the railway infrastructure).

Average delay in transposing directives: 13.3 months (last report: 7.9 months) – a marked increase of 5.4 months (the third highest increase among Member States). Denmark’s average delay is now much longer than the EU average.          
EU average = 8.6 months

Denmark added one long-overdue directive (due for almost 3 years) to its very small backlog. This significantly contributed to its high average delay in 2021 (the third highest among Member States).

Conformity deficit (percentage of all directives transposed incorrectly): 1.1% (last report: 1%) – an increase of 0.1 percentage points.  
EU average = 1.3%; proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

The number of new infringement proceedings that the Commission 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 11 directives presumed to have been incorrectly transposed, Denmark’s conformity deficit is below the EU average.

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: 18 (4 new cases, including 3 on transport, and 5 cases closed; last report: 19 pending cases) – a slight decrease of one case and still well below the EU average.        
EU average = 27 cases

For the third consecutive year, Denmark managed to decrease its number of pending cases. However, it is no longer in the top five Member States with the lowest number of cases (it was in 6th place in this reporting period).

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 4 cases were launched against Denmark, which is equal to the EU average of new cases launched in the reporting period. However, 5 Danish cases have been resolved since December 2020, which is below the EU average (8).

Problematic sectors: transport (5 cases), in particular road and rail transport (3); the environment (4 cases); energy (3 cases). Together, these make up 67% of all pending cases.

Average case duration: 34.9 months for the 17 single market cases not yet sent to the European Court of Justice (last report: 32.4 months) – this is a slight increase of 2.5 months, but the duration of cases is still shorter than the EU average.      
EU average = 42.8 months

Denmark’s average case duration significantly increased by 39% in 3 years. However, Denmark is one of six Member States whose average case duration is below the 36-month indicative target. Of the moderate number of Danish pending cases (17), 2 have been running for more than 9 years old (a case on air transport and another on direct taxation). However, their long duration has been offset by the launch of 4 new cases (whose average duration is less than 12 months) and the resolution of 4 cases with an average duration of almost 3 years.

Time taken to comply with Court rulings: 67.6 months for the four single market cases at the Court-ruling stage of the procedure and closed in the last 5 years (last report: 15.8 months).   
EU average = 46.8 months

Denmark is the Member State with the third highest increase in the average time taken to comply in the reporting period (+51.8 months). This is due to a case on air transport that was recently resolved more than 18 years after the Court ruling, with the entry into force of the EU-U.S. Air Transport Agreement (29 June 2020). For the three other cases, Denmark took between 3 and 27 months to comply.

Evolution of infringement cases

Performance – Denmark performed well.

• Results for three indicators were above the EEA average.
• The percentage of requests answered within the deadline increased significantly and is in the top five among Member States.
• Results for three of the five indicators deteriorated compared to the previous year, in particular requests accepted within 1 week, which declined significantly.

• Caseload – medium
  Submitted cases: 39 (51 in 2020)
  Received cases: 24 (22 in 2020)

• Cases not accepted: 35 (34 in 2020)

• Resolution rate: 92% (95% in 2020)
• Handling time (as home centre)
  Reply in 7 days: 91% (95% in 2020) – very good
  Cases prepared in 30 days: 90% (94% in 2020) – very good
  Solutions accepted within 7 days: 93% (86% in 2020 ) – very good

• Cases not accepted within 30 days: 63% (79% in 2020) - poor

• Handling time (as lead centre)
  Cases accepted within 7 days:  88% (95% in 2020) – good
  Cases closed in 10 weeks:  75% (59% in 2020) – good
• Staffing level
  Sufficient

In 2022, the average payment delay (the time exceeding the legal or contractually agreed payment terms) by Danish public authorities was 14 days.

The average number of days needed for a business to have its invoices paid by other businesses (business-to-business payments) was 50.40 days.

Indicator	2021	EU average
Burden of government regulation (survey replies: 1 = worst, 7 = best)	3.8	3.6
Digital public services to start and run a business (100% = best performing)	88.7%	n/a
Payment delays by public authorities	14 days	15.7 days
Time to resolve insolvency	1.0 years	2.0 years
Impact of regulation on long-term investment decisions (survey replies)	6.5%	n/a

Indicator	2021	EU average
Single bidder	18%	25%
No calls for bids	6%	6%
Publication rate (value advertised on Tenders Electronic Daily, in % of GDP)	5.3%	5.9%
Cooperative procurement (proportion of procedures with more than one buyer)	17%	5%
Award criteria (proportion of procedures awarded to cheapest bid)	43%	64%
Decision speed (days)	73	99
SME contractors	49%	61%
SME bids	54%	73%
Procedures divided into lots	26%	31%
Missing calls for bids	2%	1%
Missing seller registration numbers	46%	29%
Missing buyer registration numbers	11%	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	0.4	2.5
Restrictiveness indicator – accountant	0.0	1.7
Restrictiveness indicator – civil engineer	2.2	2.4
Restrictiveness indicator – lawyer	3.5	3.4
Restrictiveness indicator – real estate agent	2.2	1.3
Restrictiveness indicator – patent agent	0.0	2.2
Restrictiveness indicator – tourist guide	0.0	1.2
Domestic priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 1.60	€ 0.88
Intra-EU priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 1.70	€ 1.53
Domestic transit times, day+1 performance, priority letters 20 g (2020)	95.4%	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 the 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)	4.2%	11.3%
Time to get paid by businesses (2022 survey)	50.4 days	52.5 days
Venture capital investments (% of GDP)	1.17%	0.48%