Why enforcement matters?
The Single Market is based on commonly agreed rules. But EU rules only deliver benefits if they are correctly applied. Therefore, the Commission and Member States must work together to ensure EU law is correctly implemented and applied – this is called enforcement.
However, national governments, agencies, and regional and local authorities sometimes do not apply these rules correctly when taking decisions in individual cases. They might refuse permission for a company from another EU country to sell its products or do business. They might also require the company to change its labelling. A person may face a problem importing a car bought in another EU country. An EU citizen working in another EU country may encounter problems getting an entry visa for their non-EU spouse. Sometimes, professionals wanting work in another Member State have difficulties getting their qualifications recognised.
Data on the transposition of Single Market directives by Member States and on infringement cases show the state of correct implementation of the Single Market legislation.
The EU Pilot dialogue is a mechanism for informal exchange between the Commission and the Member State concerned on issues of potential non-compliance with EU law. This is a tool that can be used where it is likely to lead to swifter compliance than a formal infringement procedure. It can also prove useful in cases where the Commission wishes to collect factual or legal information.
The Internal Market Information System (IMI) digitally connects national, regional and local authorities across the EU (and the EEA) by allowing them to quickly and easily communicate with their counterparts abroad. Quick and easy contacts between Member States authorities and a swift exchange of information are essential for people and businesses to benefit from their Single Market rights.
Notification procedures are pillars of the Single Market in ensuring the free movement of goods, the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services within the EU. They facilitate the exchange of information between Member States and the Commission and help prevent the creation of technical barriers to trade, the freedom to provide services and the freedom of establishment.
To reap the full benefits of the Single Market, citizens and businesses need to be well informed about their rights. The Your Europe portal and the Your Europe Advice service offer information and tailor-made advice on individual rights that come from EU law. SOLVIT helps solve problems that individuals or businesses may encounter with a public administration.
Formal and informal cooperation between the Commission and Member States
Administrative cooperation between national authorities
- Internal Market Information System (IMI)
- Notifications in the field of technical regulations (TRIS) and services (IMI)
Assistance services for individuals and businesses
Performance by enforcement tool
The traffic light chart on enforcement tools below shows how countries have performed based on selected indicators in each area according to those tools that have been monitored.
The charts highlight where performance is above average (green), average (yellow) and below average (red). They also show, at a glance, the areas where countries are doing well and where more effort is needed.
For more on calculation methods and specific indicators for the tools, see the thematic pages for each tool.
Select a green, yellow or red square (representing a country’s performance for a particular tool or area), and you will be directed to a country page for that country. This briefly explains why the country has been rated green, yellow or red for each Single Market tool.
You can also select Countries to access the country sheets.
Main messages
In 2024, the two reports on the future of the Single Market and on the EU competitiveness, respectively commissioned to former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and former ECB President Mario Draghi, coincided on the crucial importance of the full implementation of the Single Market rules for a successful industrial policy and stronger economic growth. Member States and relevant stakeholders have echoed this message over the last few months. Along these lines, President von der Leyen has entrusted Executive Vice-President Séjourné with the task of ensuring full implementation of these rules and speeding up the removal of barriers. Renewed efforts to enforce and implement Single Market rules represent an urgent and shared priority of the Commission and Member States, following the principles of sincere cooperation and subsidiarity.
Transposition and infringements:
- Full implementation of Single Market rules is crucial for a successful industrial policy and stronger economic growth. The Scoreboard results show positive trends.
- At 0.8%, the EU average transposition deficit of Single Market directives is again below 1%, although still beyond the 0.5% target proposed in the March 2023 Communication The Single Market at 30.
- At 0.9%, the conformity deficit (the percentage of non-correctly transposed Single Market directives) fell below the symbolic 1% threshold, for the first time since December 2018. Transposition delays of outstanding Single Market directives also decreased in most Member States, by 35% on average.
- The number of Single Market infringement cases decreased. It is now 658 (-6% in the last year). The environment (35%), transport (17%), and energy (12%) are the 3 sectors with the highest number of Single Market infringement cases.
- The average case duration (excluding cases for late transposition) decreased for the first time in 5 years. It is now 45.8 months (down 7% from 49 months a year ago but up 31% compared to December 2019), well above the indicative 36-month target for cases to be either closed or sent to Court.
- The same goes for the average duration of non-communication cases, which is 18 months (33% more than the indicative 12-month target proposed in the March 2023 Communication The Single Market at 30).
- The average time for Member States to comply with a Court’s judgment related to the Single Market is still very far from the indicative 18-month target and continues to increase (61.3 months this year, double than average 5 years ago).
- The Commission and the Member States both have the responsibility to intensify their efforts to speed up the handling of infringement cases. The Commission remains committed to work with all Member States to support and promote an ambitious implementation of Single Market rules so as to ensure a favourable environment for the growth and the competitiveness of European companies and notably SMEs.
EU Pilot dialogue:
- The Commission uses the EU Pilot dialogue to efficiently check and clarify transposition issues and to gather additional factual or legal information from Member States.
- In 2024, the Commission mainly focused on processing the existing files submitted to Member States before 2024, with a significant increase of handled EU Pilot files during this period.
- With 75% of cases closed without launching an infringement procedure, the resolution rate remains high and similar to previous years.
- The policy areas with the most EU Pilot cases proposed for formal infringement procedures are governance on energy and climate (13 cases), energy performance of buildings (9 cases) and water (5 cases).
Internal Market Information System (IMI)
- The Internal Market Information System (IMI) implements and enforces Single Market rules by digitally connecting administrations across borders and languages.
- IMI also accelerates the digital transformation of the EU public sector by providing it with a modern IT tool designed for efficient management.
- IMI is used daily in 21 policy areas by more than 44 000 public administration staff from over 12 600 authorities.
- In 2024 the system ensured 115 000 information exchanges, including 5 593 alerts and 43 724 notifications.
- There also were 19.6 million road transport posting declarations submitted through the portal powered by IMI.
- In 2024, IMI integrated and modernised the Regulated Professions Database. This was a significant step towards creating a future one-stop-shop notification hub for Member States.
- The scoreboard indicators show that the IMI users performed, overall, similarly to 2023 and 20 countries had an above average aggregated performance for all scoreboard indicators.
- Nevertheless, countries should continue their efforts to improve coordination and ensure that national authorities have the capacity to provide timely and high-quality responses to all requests and obligations.
- In the last year, the integration of EU Login (the EU’s authentication service) into IMI brought all IMI authorities into the same European administrative space and made the system more secure. The launch of the new future-proof user interface modernised IMI’s look and feel and brought in new technical features and upgrades.
- In the future, IMI should continue expanding to new areas, including by connecting people and businesses and national administrations via a generic portal, reusable across policy areas, and contributing to data-driven policymaking.
Notifications in the field of technical regulations (TRIS) and services (IMI)
- Notification procedures in the Single Market Transparency Directive and the Services Directive have been in place for a number of years and generally fulfil their key purpose - identifying and preventing possible regulatory barriers in the internal market at an early stage.
- High level of transparency and active involvement of all actors, including industry stakeholders, is a key principle in the notification procedures, which the Commission, supported by the Member States, continues to implement and further improve.
- The continuously high number of notifications in the framework of the Single Market Transparency Directive, reactions from both the Commission and the Member States, as well as contributions from the stakeholders clearly indicate that the preventive function of the Directive is successfully fulfilled.
- At the same time, the number of notifications in the framework of the Services Directive remains low and several Member States have not notified any requirements during the 2024 reporting period. This may indicate a persistent lack of attention to this area in many Member States.
- The Member States must continue improving their efforts to ensure the correct application of their notification obligations, including building sufficient capacity of their national administrations to this end.
SOLVIT
- SOLVIT is an informal, free of charge, problem-solving network of the Commission, the EU and the EEA Member States. It assists citizens and businesses when their EU rights are breached by public authorities in another country.
- In 2024, SOLVIT proved again its important role in the fight against Single Market barriers for the benefit of many people and businesses.
- Compared to 2023, the number of cases increased sharply by 45%. In 2024, the total number of cases was 3 339.
- The resolution rate fell to 77% due to a very high number of Greek systemic pension cases that cannot be resolved by SOLVIT. If these systemic cases are excluded, the overall resolution rate is high at 85%.
- Member States should continue to make sure that their SOLVIT centres are properly equipped and have sufficient authoritative power to influence national administrations, enough permanent staff, legal expertise or easy access to it. This is a key point for attention as a lack of capacity in one SOLVIT centre affects the whole network.
- In 2024, SOLVIT continued to work on better detection of the systemic cases (recurrent cases or cases due to a written national rule, as opposed to one-off individual cases) which cannot be effectively solved by the network. A newly developed IT application (in the IMI system) will ensure more transparency on those cases.
- It is essential that decision makers at national and EU level take swift and concrete steps to resolve the systemic cases identified by SOLVIT. This was also confirmed in Council Conclusions in May 2024.