Enforcement tools

Reporting period:

12/2024 – 11/2025

Why enforcement matters?

The Single Market is based on commonly agreed rules. But EU rules only deliver benefits if they are applied fully and correctly . Therefore, the Commission and Member States must work together to ensure EU law is correctly implemented and applied as soon as possible – this common objective is achieved through cooperation and 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 full and correct implementation of the Single Market legislation.

The pre-infringement 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.

Informal cooperation between the Commission and Member States and enforcement actions

Administrative cooperation between national authorities

Assistance services for individuals and businesses

SOLVIT

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

As highlighted in Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi reports in 2024, fully implementing Single Market rules is crucial for industrial policy and economic growth. This view is echoed by Member States and strongly supported by stakeholders. The Commission and Member States are committed to ensuring the enforcement of these rules and speeding up barrier removal, in line with principles of cooperation and subsidiarity.

On 11 February 2025, the EU Commission adopted its Communication on implementation and simplification, A simpler and faster Europe, highlighting that simplification must go hand in hand with stronger implementation and enforcement of EU law. This includes closer cooperation with Member States to ensure correct and timely transposition, better administrative capacity and use of digital tools, clearer guidance for authorities and stakeholders, and systematic feedback from businesses and citizens through implementation dialogues. Where voluntary compliance fails, the Commission will also rely on infringement procedures to guarantee proper and uniform implementation and enforcement of EU law across the Single Market, as highlighted by the Single Market Strategy.

Transposition and Infringements

Full implementation of Single Market rules is crucial for setting up the basis of a successful industrial policy and stronger economic growth. The Scoreboard results show that a lot of work remains to be done so that the EU citizens and businesses can ripe all the benefits from the Single Market freedoms.
At 1.1% this year, the EU average transposition deficit of Single Market directives is again above the 1% target set at the March 2007 European Council. Also at 1.1%, the conformity deficit (the percentage of non-correctly transposed Single Market directives) mirrors the negative trend in the transposition deficit. Both deficits are now far from the 0.5% target proposed in the March 2023 Communication The Single Market at 30.
Transposition delays of overdue Single Market directives decreased in most Member States, by 18% on average (from 11.9 to 9.7 months). The average duration of proceedings for the late transposition has also decreased, from 18 months in 2024 to 15.2 months in 2025.
The number of Single Market infringement cases has risen slightly. It is now reaching 664 cases, 1% more than the previous year. Comparing to numbers of 5 years ago, a more intensive use of the pre-infringement dialogue explains overall lower numbers.
Environment (36%), transport (16%), and employment (9%) are the sectors with the highest number of Single Market infringement cases.
For the second consecutive year, the average case duration has gone down: it is now slightly more than 3.5 years (44.5 months in 2025 and 49 months 2 years ago).
The average time to comply with Court rulings in the Single Market area has worsened. The time for compliance has increased from 61.3 months last year to 64 months in December 2025.

Pre-Infringement dialogue

The Commission uses the pre-infringement dialogue to efficiently check and clarify transposition issues and to gather additional factual or legal information from Member States.
The figures for 2025 (reference period of January to November 2025) show again a rise of new pre-infringement dialogues. During the reference period, the Commission has initiated 255 new dialogues (compared to 168 in 2024).
With 75% of pre-infringement dialogues closed without launching an infringement procedure, the dialogues remain very efficient and similar to previous years.
The policy areas with the most pre-infringement dialogues proposed for formal infringement procedures are hydrocarbons (10 cases), water (6 cases) and consumer and marketing law (6 cases).
Out of the 286 dialogues closed between January and November 2025, more than 20% have been initiated in 2025. This shows that the pre-infringement dialogue has the potential to achieve swift results and to efficiently collect information.

Internal Market Information System (IMI)

IMI is an online system that supports digital administrative cooperation required to implement Single Market rule. In the reporting period, the system supported over 136 000 information exchanges among national authorities in different SM policy areas, including almost 4 600 alerts and over 42 700 notifications, bringing the total number of IMI exchanges since its start in 2008 to over 837 200.
88 000 road transport operators submitted an impressive 21.3 million posting declarations for more than 1.7 million drivers through the Road Transport Posting Declaration portal powered by IMI. This portal continues to significantly contribute to the smooth functioning of the road transport sector cross-border, saving time and resources and reducing administrative burden.
The reporting framework for this edition of the scoreboard was changed: 2 indicators were replaced with new ones, the performance thresholds for 2 indicators were made stricter and the coverage of the reporting base was increased. This aims to encourage actions meant to promote evolution towards a more performant and responsive system that fosters compliance. Performance comparisons between this and previous editions of the Scoreboard will therefore not be meaningful.
In the reporting period, overall performance of Member states was rather good. 11 countries had an above-average aggregated performance for all indicators, 14 had an average performance and 5 countries were below average. 5 countries were above the average performance threshold for all indicators.

Notifications in the field of technical regulations (TRIS) and services (IMI)

Notification procedures in the Single Market Transparency Directive (SMTD) and the Services Directive have an important role of 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 notified drafts under the Single Market Transparency Directive (787 during the 2025 reporting period) shows that Member States generally fulfil well their notification obligations. However, the recent 12% increase of Commission reactions to the notified drafts is a source of concern. The Member States must pay attention to ensuring that their proposed technical regulations are proportionate and avoid creating unnecessary frictions in the internal market. Similarly, the low number of final texts accompanying notified measures, currently standing at 28% of all notified drafts, must be addressed by Member States in order to ensure maximum transparency and legal certainty.
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 2025 reporting period.
The Commission is working on several actions to use the full potential of the notification mechanisms of the two Directives, in line with the Single market strategy.

SOLVIT

SOLVIT is a problem-solving network involving administrations from the Commission, the EU and EEA Member States. Its core business is to assist citizens and businesses free of charge when their EU rights are breached by public authorities in another country.
In 2025, SOLVIT received another record high number of complaints. Following a 45% increase in 2024, there was another 22% increase in cases in 2025. Citizens and businesses submitted 7 941 complaints of which 3 612 cases fell within SOLVIT remit. The network solved 85% of the cases.
In addition to its primary role of solving cross-border problems for citizens and businesses, SOLVIT also assumed a pivotal role in supporting a well-functioning Single Market, by identifying systemic obstacles through the cases under its remit.
The Single Market Strategy calls for the SOLVIT network to be further strengthened. This is only possible when there is sufficient staff. The Scoreboard’s staffing overview measures how SOLVIT centres cope with their current caseload. The overall staffing situation has deteriorated compared to last year. This, combined with the ever-increasing caseload, means that there is an urgent need to reconsider the overall staffing situation of the SOLVIT centres and determine the needs of each SOLVIT centre. As it is a cooperative network, the strength of the network as a whole is determined by its weakest link.
The Single Market Strategy also calls to follow up on SOLVIT’s structural issues. The newly deployed repository of cases makes it possible to better capture and analyse the nature of systemic issues in order to follow-up on them. In 2025, the Commission compiled a list of 18 obstacles based on the repository. These obstacles have been referred to the competent administrations for appropriate follow-up and resolution (see separate section in the chapter on SOLVIT). Member States and relevant Commission services are urged to address these issues.