Reporting period:
Introduction
This report takes into account all transposition notifications made by 5 December 2023 for Single Market directives with a transposition deadline on or before 30 November 2023. As of that date, 1001 directives and 6492 regulations were in force to ensure the functioning of the Single Market. All comparisons are with the figures for 10 December 2022, the previous reporting date.
Single Market legislation can only achieve its intended effects if the provisions in the relevant directives are completely and correctly implemented in Member States’ national laws by the deadline set out in these directives.
Monitoring transposition helps make the Single Market work by ensuring that Single Market rules are implemented properly in Member States.
Such monitoring shows the transposition deficit (the gap between the number of Single Market directives adopted by the EU and the number of directives transposed by each Member State) and the conformity deficit (the percentage of those directives incorrectly transposed). It highlights what Member States are doing to ensure that Single Market law is implemented correctly and, by doing so, encourages them to improve their performance.
Transposition and the Single Market – why does it matter?
Incorrect transposition, implementation and application of EU rules creates barriers to the smooth functioning of the Single Market. Delays or gaps in transposition deprive people and businesses of the benefits stemming from the agreed rules, sometimes even for years.
The December 2016 Communication on EU law: Better results through better application pointed to the need to strengthen the assessment of the compliance of national measures implementing EU law and clearly demonstrated the Commission’s determination to ensure fast transposition (to learn how the Commission handles cases brought to the Court of Justice under Article 260(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), see “More information”).
It is up to each Member State to implement EU directives in an accurate and timely way. The March 2020 Long-term action plan for better implementation and enforcement of Single Market rules (the “enforcement action plan”) highlights that the Single Market is built on EU law and is at the heart of the European project. It has fuelled economic growth and has made life easier for European consumers and businesses. However, timely and correct transposition of Single Market rules remains a challenge.
To support Member States more effectively in transposing directives and prevent new barriers to the Single Market, the Commission (in its Better Regulation Guidelines of November 2021) proposed implementation strategies to assist Member States and to monitor the transposition of new directives. These strategies identify the challenges that Member States face during the implementation process and explain what support the Commission can provide to Member States. Support measures include preparing guidance documents, organising expert groups and workshops, creating dedicated websites, and promoting training for practitioners.
In October 2022, the Commission adopted the Communication Enforcing EU law for a Europe that delivers that set out how the Commission has deepened and developed its work on enforcement. The goal is to ensure that EU law is upheld equally in all Member States and to maximise the concrete benefits that its implementation and enforcement work delivers in the everyday lives of people in the EU (the scope of the Communication is described in “More information”).
To mark the 30th anniversary of the EU’s Single Market, the Commission published on 31 January 2023 the third edition of the Annual Single Market Report. The report took stock of the integration of the Single Market and analysed how it helps the EU to navigate current geopolitical tensions, improve its competitiveness and support the economy’s green and digital transitions.
The Communication The Single Market at 30, published on 16 March 2023, looked ahead and called for a renewed focus on removing national barriers and enforcing existing Single Market rules. This should be supported by benchmarks to address deficiencies in the transposition and implementation of EU rules.
In particular, the Communication, building on the Commission’s previous call to Member States, proposed setting specific enforcement targets to limit both the transposition and the conformity deficit to 0.5%. Similarly, it proposed reducing the duration of cases on the non-communication of transposition measures to 12 months from the sending of the letter of formal notice to the resolution of the case or its referral to the Court of Justice. This second indicator has been added for the first time to the Transposition part of the Scoreboard, as indicator [6] (for more details on the publications linked to The Single Market at 30, see “More information”).
The Communication Long-term competitiveness of the EU looking beyond 2030 also presented by the Commission on 16 March 2023, intended to provide a basis for boosting competitiveness beyond 2030. It identified 9 mutually reinforcing drivers and 17 key performance indicators (KPIs) and committed to “present[ing] the update on an annual basis in the Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard”. This means that the Single Market Scoreboard is now expanded to make sure it includes the 17 KPIs relevant for the analysis of the 9 competitiveness drivers. It is becoming a key tool to monitor the EU’s and Member States’ competitiveness under a new Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard (SMCS), without changing the tried and tested overall structure of the Scoreboard. The conformity deficit, as presented in this page (see indicator [5]), is one of the agreed KPIs.
The Communication Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report is the successor to the previous Annual Single Market Report. In a single communication and within one annual cycle, it implements the processes set out in The Single Market at 30 and Long-term competitiveness of the EU looking beyond 2030. The Communication provides the basis to measure the state of (i) the Single Market and (ii) EU long-term competitiveness and productivity. This will help inform and lead discussions on any necessary policy measures. It is published together with the Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard, which provides supporting data. It also integrates insights from the work of the Single Market Enforcement Task Force (SMET) to eliminate Single Market barriers.
Key messages
- On transposing Single Market directives (all indicators combined), 8 Member States improved on their overall performance compared to December 2022 (Bulgaria, Ireland, Croatia, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden). However, the situation deteriorated for 6 Member States (Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Malta and Portugal). The performance of the remaining 13 Member States remained stable. For the first time, the overall performance takes into account a new indicator setting a threshold of 12 months to either close the infringement cases launched for non-communication of transposition measures or send those cases to the Court of Justice.
- The average transposition deficit and the average conformity deficit both decreased. The transposition deficit is back on track (0.7%, down from 1.1% last year). 23 Member States are now in line with the European Council’s 1% target. With a deficit at 0.1%, France is close to the perfect score. The conformity deficit slightly decreased for the first time in 4 years (1.2%, down from 1.3% last year).
- Transposing directives within the transposition deadline is just one aspect of implementation. Directives also need to be correctly transposed and applied on the ground to be considered to be fully implemented. 11 Member States (Denmark, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden) met the 1% transposition deficit with a low percentage of incorrectly transposed directives. On the contrary, Bulgaria and Poland both had a high transposition deficit and a high percentage of incorrectly transposed directives. Hungary is the Member State with the second-lowest transposition deficit but with the highest number of incorrectly transposed directives.
- The average transposition delay reached an all-time high, at 18.3 months (it was 12.6 months in 2022 and 8.6 months in 2021). This is explained by Member States quickly transposing the most recent directives in this period. Their failure to implement the oldest remaining ones then contributed more to the average delay. Slovenia, Luxembourg and France have transposition delays of less than a year, while Malta, Portugal, Hungary and Greece have average delays of more than 2 years. This should of course be viewed in relation to the total number of outstanding directives in each Member State.
- As mentioned above, the threshold to either close cases on non-communication of transposition measures or refer them to the Court of Justice is 12 months. In December 2023, the average duration of non-communication cases related to Single Market was 17.9 months. While Member States have to ensure timely notifications, in case of failure, the Commission needs to go ahead with the infringement proceedings without delay. However, once the transposition is complete, the infringement case should be closed promptly.
- After 3 challenging years, Member States have a clear and renewed interest in implementing EU law. In 2023, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Single Market, the Commission published several communications. They all highlighted the need for in-depth collaboration with Member States and proposed tools to support Member States’ efforts to improve their performance.
Overall performance
A Member State’s performance across all transposition indicators is calculated by scoring each of the 6 indicators listed in the Performance indicators table below as follows:
RED = -1, YELLOW = 0 and GREEN = +1.
The colours on the map represent the sum of these scores:
- green: 2 or higher = above average
- yellow: -1, 0 or 1 = average
- red: -2 or lower = below average
- 8 Member States improved on their overall performance compared to December 2022 (Bulgaria, Ireland, Croatia, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden). However, the situation deteriorated for 6 Member States (Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Malta and Portugal). The performance of the remaining 13 Member States remained stable. In 2022, 13 Member States improved their performance, and the situation worsened for 5 of them. Therefore, these results are worse than last year.
- For the first time, the overall performance takes into account a new indicator on the duration of cases on the non-communication of transposition measures (see indicator [6]). If this indicator was not included, the overall situation would have been similar to that of the last year (13 Member States would have had a better performance and 4 would have had a worse one).
- In total, 8 Member States got a green card (above-average performance). They were France, Cyprus, Lithuania and Slovenia (all maintaining their December 2022 performance above the EU average) and Latvia, Luxembourg, Finland and Sweden (improving on most of the indicators). All Member States with a green card met the 1% transposition deficit target set at the March 2007 European Council. They also had a better-than-average conformity deficit, except France.
- As for red cards, Germany, Spain, Hungary and Poland remained in the group of Member States performing below the EU average. 4 Member States (Bulgaria, Ireland, Croatia and the Netherlands) succeeded in tackling the issue and now perform around the EU average. Spain and Poland had a transposition deficit above the 1% target, while Germany and Hungary met the target. Spain had an average conformity deficit, and it was below average for the other 3 Member States.
Performance indicators
Indicator | green | yellow | red |
---|---|---|---|
[1] Transposition deficit → Target established by the European Council, Brussels 8-9 March 2007 | ≤ 1% | / | > 1% |
[2] Change over the last 12 months (change in the number of outstanding directives) | decrease | no change | increase |
[3] Number of overdue directives (2 years or more) → Target established by the European Council, Barcelona 15-16 March 2002 | 0 | / | > 0 |
[4] Transposition delay for overdue directives (in months) [5] Conformity deficit | < average -10% | average ±10% | > average +10% |
[6] Duration of infringement proceedings for late transposition (in months) | ≤ 12 months | > 12 months ≤ 18 months | > 18 months |
This table combines the most relevant indicators to provide a better overview of Member States’ compliance in transposing the Single Market directives. The table shows that a good result on the transposition deficit – which is seen as a key indicator – does not necessarily reflect the overall performance. This is particularly the case for Hungary, which has an outstanding transposition deficit (0.2%) but performs below the EU average when all indicators are considered.
Indicator [1]: Transposition deficit
The transposition deficit is the percentage of Single Market directives not yet completely notified to the Commission out of the total number of directives that should have been notified by the deadline. A 1% target was set at the March 2007 European Council. A new 0.5% target was proposed in the April 2011 Single Market Act and in the March 2023 Communication The Single Market at 30.
How is the transposition deficit calculated?
In its calculation of each Member State’s transposition deficit, the Commission includes:
- directives for which no transposition measures have been communicated
- directives considered as partially transposed by the Member State, after notification of some transposition measures
- directives the Member State considers completely transposed, but for which the Commission has launched an infringement proceeding for non-communication and the Member State has not notified new transposition measures after the latest procedural step taken by the Commission.
The transposition deficit does not include directives that are considered completely transposed by a Member State but for which transposition measures are still under examination by the Commission (no procedural step since the latest notification) – see Directives under completeness check in Facts and figures.
Transposition deficit of Single Market directives, by Member States, as of 5 December 2023:
The average EU transposition deficit of Single Market directives is back on track, at 0.7%. The deterioration observed in the last 4 years is being reversed (see also Changes in the average transposition deficit chart in the Trends section).
23 Member States are now in line with the 1% target (up from 15 a year ago). Member States must now renew their efforts to reach the newly proposed 0.5% target.
- The transposition deficit further decreased from 1.1% to 0.7% (-36%) and is now back below the 1% threshold. The COVID-19 pandemic and the high number of Single Market directives (96) that had to be transposed led to a drastic decrease in the number of Member States that met the target between 2019 and 2021.
- In addition to the 15 other Member States that met the 1% threshold last year, Czechia, Ireland, Croatia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, the Netherlands and Portugal achieved this goal in the reporting period.
- 23 Member States are nowin line with the European Council’s 1% target, which is an outstanding achievement. Of those, 11 Member States also met the 0.5% target that the Commission proposed in the 2011 Single Market Act. Only 7 met the target in 2022 and only 2 did so in 2021.
- 16 Member States that met the 1% target managed to further reduce their backlogs (they were 12 in 2022). Despite the overall progress, 3 Member States met the target but saw a rise in their transposition deficit: Denmark, Estonia and Malta. This increase is moderate: 0.2 to 0.5 percentage points.
- The 4 Member States that missed the target this year (Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain and Poland) are those that had the highest deficit in 2022.
- 20 Member States managed to improve their performance compared to a year ago (from 0.1 percentage points of improvement for Bulgaria, Greece and Romania to 1.2 for Spain and 1.3 for Hungary). France, Italy, Hungary and Romania reached or equalled their best-ever result. France is very close to the perfect result.
- The goal is still that all Member States transpose Single Market directives by the agreed deadlines. However, Member States should be praised for the considerable efforts they have made to achieve these results after the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indicator [2]: Change over the last 12 months
Change in the number of outstanding Single Market directives since December 2022
Most Member States continued to reduce their number of overdue Single Market directives during the year.
- Compared to a year ago, 24 Member States reduced or equalled their number of outstanding Single Market directives (up from 21), while the number rose in 3 Member States (down from 6). An average of 3 directives were removed from the backlog in 2023 (down from 5 in 2022). This is a result of the sharp reduction in the number of overdue directives that began last year.
- The 3 Member States that have a bigger backlog than before (Denmark, Estonia and Malta) stayed below the transposition deficit threshold. However, at 0.9%, Denmark and Estonia are close to passing the threshold and should refocus their attention on not missing the 1% target next year. Transposition is an ongoing process and any let-up can result in a quick rise in the deficit.
- 4 Member States reversed the negative trend of the previous year and reduced the number of outstanding directives. Noteworthy efforts include Poland and Finland (both with 5 fewer outstanding directives), Spain (12 fewer) and Hungary (13 fewer). Spain halved its very high backlog (13 directives, down from 25 last year). Hungary missed the threshold last year (1.5%) and had the greatest increase in the number of overdue directives (+8). It is now the Member States with the second-lowest deficit (0.2%) and the sharpest decrease (-13).
Indicator [3]: Long-overdue directives (2 years or more)
Single Market directives with transposition deadlines before 1 December 2021, which have not been fully notified to the Commission by at least one Member State as of 5 December 2023
Number | Title | Not fully transposed by | Transposition date |
---|---|---|---|
2014/112/EU | Implementation of the European Agreement concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time in inland waterway transport | Cyprus, Greece, Malta | 31/12/2016 |
2013/59/EUR | Basic safety standards for protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionising radiation | Spain | 06/02/2018 |
2018/844/EU | Amendment of Directives 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings and 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency | Germany, Malta | 10/03/2020 |
2018/1808/EU | Amendment of Directive 2010/13/EU on audiovisual media services (Audiovisual Media Services Directive) | Ireland | 19/09/2020 |
2018/2002/EU | Amendment of Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency | Croatia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain | 25/10/2020 |
(EU) 2016/797 | Interoperability of the rail system within the European Union | Poland | 31/10/2020 |
(EU) 2016/798 | Railway safety | Poland | 31/10/2020 |
(EU) 2018/1972 | European Electronic Communications Code (Recast) | Poland | 21/12/2020 |
(EU) 2019/944 | Common rules for the internal market for electricity | Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Spain | 31/12/2020 |
2019/1/EC | Empowerment of the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market | Estonia, Romania | 04/02/2021 |
(EU) 2019/789 | Exercise of copyright and related rights applicable to certain online transmissions of broadcasting organisations and retransmissions of television and radio programmes | Poland | 07/06/2021 |
(EU) 2019/790 | Copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market | Poland | 07/06/2021 |
(EU) 2019/883 | Port reception facilities for the delivery of waste from ships | Bulgaria | 28/06/2021 |
(EU) 2018/2001 | Promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources | Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden | 30/06/2021 |
(EU) 2019/770 | Contracts for the supply of digital content and digital services | Slovakia | 01/07/2021 |
(EU) 2019/771 | Contracts for the sale of goods | Slovakia | 01/07/2021 |
(EU) 2019/1024 | Open data and the re-use of public sector information | Belgium, Netherlands | 17/07/2021 |
(EU) 2019/1161 | Promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles | Bulgaria | 02/08/2021 |
(EU) 2019/520 | Interoperability of electronic road toll systems and facilitating cross-border exchange of information on the failure to pay road fees in the Union | Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden | 19/10/2021 |
(EU) 2019/2161 | Amendment of Directive 93/13/EEC, 98/6/EC, 2005/29/EC and 2011/83/EU as regards the better enforcement and modernisation of Union consumer protection rules | Slovakia | 28/11/2021 |
Many more directives and Member States are concerned compared to last year. 25 Member States have long-overdue Single Market directives (up from 14) and 20 long-overdue directives have not been fully notified (up from 13).
- Long transposition delays seriously impair the proper functioning of the Single Market. The longer the delay, the less legal security there is and the more serious the consequences are for people and businesses. This is why the European Council, meeting in Barcelona in March 2002, set a target of “zero tolerance” for delays of 2 years or more in transposing directives.
- Missing notifications for these long-overdue Single Market directives now account for 27% of the overall transposition deficit (54 missing notifications out of 198). A year ago, they accounted for 10%, and 2 years ago for just 4%. In absolute terms, the number of missing notifications for long-overdue directives has significantly increased (17 in 2021, 30 in 2022 and 54 in 2023). This puts the zero tolerance target further away.
- Currently, only 2 Member States, France and Slovenia, meet the zero-tolerance target compared to 13 in December 2022.
- In the last year Belgium, Ireland, Croatia and Luxembourg managed to transpose some of their long-overdue directives, reducing the number by between 1 and 3 (and even 4 for Belgium).
- By contrast, 17 Member States moved in the opposite direction. Of those, 11 had between 1 and 6 directives overdue for more than 2 years at the end of the reporting period. There were significant increases for Estonia and Portugal (3 more) and Poland (6 more). 6 Member States (Bulgaria, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Slovakia and Sweden) added 1 or 2 directives to their existing backlog. The situation remained unchanged in the Netherlands and Romania (1 long-overdue directive each), Hungary (2 directives) and Spain (4 directives).
- Long transposition delays, which prevent people and businesses from exercising their rights under EU law and create legal uncertainty. For example, not all Member States have transposed Directive 2013/59/EU (see the table above). This means that health safety standards designed to protect individuals from ionising radiation in occupational, medical and public exposures have still not been implemented across the EU, almost 5 years after the agreed date.
- By December 2024, 10 more directives may be added to the list of long-overdue Single Market directives for some Member States.
Indicator [4]: Total transposition delays
The spark lines in the chart shows the trend in transposition delays for Single Market directives since December 2020. Bar gives the value in December 2023. The EU average is 18.3 months.
Transposition delays of Single Market directives increased in most Member States. Outstanding directives are now 18.3 months late on average (up from 12.6 months a year ago).
- Only 2 Member States reduced their average delay (down from 4 in December 2022). However, the decrease was moderate: Sweden (-0.1 month) and Luxembourg (-1.2 months). The average delay remained stable in Belgium and Bulgaria.
- 23 Member States (same as last year) saw an increase in the average transposition delay. The upward trend that began 2 years ago continued, but the increase in the transposition delay is even bigger this year (+5.7months) than between 2020 and 2022 (+5.2 months).
- Among them, the rise was variable. There was an increase of less than 1 month for Estonia, Latvia, Austria and Slovenia. The increase was around 2 years for Hungary (21.1 months) and Greece (28.6 months) due to the long delay in transposing their few overdue directives. For other Member States, such as Germany, Cyprus, Malta, Poland and Portugal, the increase was partly due to additional long-overdue directives.
- Contrary to what might be assumed, having fewer outstanding directives may go hand in hand with a higher transposition delay: when Member States quickly transpose the most recent directives, the remaining older ones may have a greater impact on the average delay. This is the case for Portugal. The country impressively decreased its number of overdue directives from 13 to 4 in a year, but this has pushed up its average transposition delay significantly (+180%). This is because the delays are substantial for 3 out of the 4 remaining directives: 29, 35 and 37 months respectively.
- Member States should better anticipate difficulties at an early stage of a directive‘s transposition. They should already start planning before the directive is formally adopted. Some of the recommendations included in the stocktaking report published by the Commission on 14 July 2023 aim to increase and optimise the Commission’s support to Member States in this respect.
Indicator [5]: Conformity deficit (incorrectly transposed directives)
The conformity deficit measures the number of transposed Single Market directives for which the Commission has launched infringement proceedings for incorrect transposition. It is expressed as a percentage of the number of Single Market directives notified to the Commission as “transposed” or “not requiring any further implementation measures”. Only the Court of Justice can rule definitively that a directive has not been transposed correctly, and the Commission is still working on the conformity assessment of a number of notified national measures. This should be kept in mind when interpreting the conformity deficit statistics.
The conformity deficit, as presented below, is one of the agreed KPIs identified in the March 2023 Communication Long-term competitiveness of the EU looking beyond 2030. It is the second in driver “A Functioning Single Market”.
Conformity deficit of Single market directives, by Member States as of 5 December 2023
The average conformity of Single Market directives slightly decreased for the first time in 4 years (1.2%, down from 1.3% last year).
- There is still a high number of ongoing ingringement cases that need to be resolved (253 cases on 68 different Single Market directives). Nevertheless, there has been progress compared to last year, when there were 292 cases on 73 directives.
- 20 Member States (up from 13 last year) reduced their previous deficit by between 0.1 and 0.5 percentage points. Reductions ranged from less than 10% for France, Croatia, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Slovakia to more than 30% for Greece, Malta, Luxembourg, Portugal and Slovenia, and even 50% for Latvia. Spain maintained its previous deficit.
- 6 Member States (down from 10) saw an increase in their deficit by 0.1 to 0.4 percentage points: Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Cyprus, Austria and Romania. Czechia no longer has the highest conformity deficit. Hungary has taken its place. At 2.3%, this is Hungary’s worst-ever result (even though its transposition deficit is the second best among all Member States). Transposing directives within the transposition deadline is just one aspect of implementation. They also need to be correctly transposed and applied on the ground to be considered as fully implemented.
- The overall situation has slightly improved. Last year, 19 Member States had a conformity deficit over 1%, and now there are 16. Similarly, 8 Member States had a deficit over 1.5%, and there are now 4. Hungary still has incorrectly transposed more than 2% of Single Market directives, while Bulgaria and Czechia managed to go below this threshold.
- In November 2012, 11 Member States met the conformity deficit target of 0.5% or less proposed in the 2011 Single Market Act. There were 4 in December 2018, but there were none in the following 4 years. In December 2023, 3 Member States reached the target again: Latvia, Luxembourg and Malta. Member States’ efforts to reduce the number of EU rules incorrectly transposed can help to save a lot of the time and effort that currently goes into the lengthy processes of revising the rules after they have started to apply.
- Bulgaria and Poland have both a high transposition deficit and a high percentage of incorrectly transposed Single Market directives. These countries should consider further efforts to reduce these numbers. Improving the cooperative mechanisms and procedures supporting Member States should result in more compliance.
Indicator [6]: Duration of infringement process for late transposition
The September 2007 Communication A Europe of results – Applying Community Law called for faster infringements management and priorised non-communication of national measures transposing directives. It proposed a deadline of 12 months from the sending of the letter of formal notice to the resolution of the case or its referral to the Court of Justice. This threshold was also included in the December 2016 Communication on EU law: Better results through better application and in the March 2023 Communication “The Single Market at 30” as one concrete target helping to enforce Single Market rules. It has been decided to make it a full-fledged indicator to emphasise the need for rapid action to put an end to infringements. This task is shared by the Commission and the Member States. While Member States have to ensure timely notifications, in case of failure, the Commission needs to go ahead with the infringement proceedings without delay. However, once the transposition is complete, the infringement case should be closed promptly.
Pending infringement cases concerning late transposition of Single Market directives not yet sent to the Court (those at the pre-litigation stage) on 1 December 2023 (496 cases). Average duration is calculated in months from when the letter of formal notice is sent.
The average duration of non-communication proceedings for Single Market directives is above the 12-month threshold.
- The total number of pending infringement cases for late transposition of Single Market directives is 528. This is significantly higher than the current number of missing transpositions and transpositions declared partial by the Member States or by a formal Commission decision (198). This is because the Commission needs time to assess the completeness of the measures belatedly notified and, if applicable, to close non-communication proceedings.
- For this reason, Member States’ transposition performance has always been based on the number of missing transpositions and not on the number of pending infringement proceedings. However, once launched, the procedures must be closed or referred to the Court as quickly as possible within 12 months.
- The Commission and the Member States both have the responsibility to speed up the handling of infringement cases. The Member States can reduce the number of proceedings by promptly transposing directives (see indicator [4] – the average delay was more than 18 months in December 2023). The Commission can help by accelerating its case handling procedures. This is why swiftly transposing directives and streamlining procedures are a key part of the Commission’s recommendations in the stocktaking report published on 14 July 2023.
- The average duration of proceedings in the EU for late tansposition of Single Market directives is almost 50% longer than the 12-month threshold (17.9 months), and the national average durations vary significantly from one Member State to another. Danish cases have the lowest duration, which is very close to the target (12.1 months). At the other end of the scale, cases from Hungary and the Netherlands have a case duration twice as high as the target.
- The number of cases open for non-communication of Single Market directives also varies among Member States. The average is 18, ranging from 9 cases for Lithuania and Romania to 27 for Belgium and Cyprus.
EEA EFTA countries
Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway are also subject to Single Market rules under the EEA Agreement. They are monitored by the EFTA Surveillance Authority.
However, there is a time lag between the adoption or repeal of a legal act in the EU and its addition to or removal from the EEA Agreement. This means that the body of EU law that applies in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway may differ from that which is in force in the EU. On 1 December 2023, 799 directives and 4230 regulations were in force to ensure the functioning of the Single Market in the EEA. This should be considered when comparing the Single Market Scoreboard with the EEA Scoreboard.
Transposition deficit of Single Market directives
Transposition deficit in EEA EFTA countries as of 1 December 2023
Average deficit (all 3 countries): 0.8% (down from 1.0% in December 2022)
- Iceland: 1.6% (up from 1.0%)
- Norway: 0.8% (down from 1.5%)
- Liechtenstein: 0.1% (down from 0.4%)
Total number of late directives: 20 (down from 23 in December 2022)
- Iceland: 13 (up from 8)
- Norway: 6 (down from 12)
- Liechtenstein: 1 (down from 3)
Average delay in transposing directives: 11.8 months (down from 13.1 months in December 2022)
- Norway: 21.2 months (this is nearly double from 11.2 months in the previous period)
- Iceland: 13.1 months (up from 10.1 months)
- Liechtenstein: 1 month (down from 18 months)
- Only Liechtenstein met the proposed 0.5% transposition deficit target. The number of Single Market directives that have not been notified fell compared to December 2022.
- Zero tolerance target: in total, the EEA EFTA countries have 6 directives that have been overdue for 2 years or more (2 for Norway and 4 for Iceland).
- Directives still outstanding from the previous period: Iceland: 5; Norway: 3, Liechtenstein: 0.
- The average delay decreased by 11.8 months (down from 13.1 months).
Trends (in the EU)
Changes in the average transposition deficit
The transposition deficit is the percentage of directives not yet completely notified to the Commission out of the total number of Single Market directives that should have been notified by the deadline. A 1% target was set at the March 2007 European Council. A new 0.5% target was proposed in the April 2011 Single Market Act and in the March 2023 Communication The Single Market at 30.
- The EU average transposition deficit of Single market directives is now back to what it was before COVID-19 pandemic.
- The EU average deficit, which had been decreasing steadily for 19 years (between 1997 and 2016), doubled in June 2016 (from 0.7% to 1.5%). This rise was due to an unusually high number of Single Market directives that needed to be transposed in the months before the cut-off date for calculating Member States’ performance. The transposition rate then returned to more normal values (0.6% in December 2019).
- In 2020 and 2021, the transposition deficit increased again, by 167%. This was mainly caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which placed a strain on Member States’ administrative resources. After these 2 difficult years, Member States managed to break the significant upward trend. The transposition deficit fell by 30%, from 1.6% to 1.1% in December 2022, and by a further 37%, from 1.1% to 0.7% in December 2023.
- The number of directives that needed to be transposed in the reporting periods has a significant impact on Member States’ performance. In 2016 (1 December 2015 to 30 November 2016), Member States had to transpose 66 new Single Market directives, which led to the transposition deficit doubling. This number was lower in the following years: 39 in 2017, 38 in 2018, 35 in 2019, 51 in 2020, 45 in 2021 and 48 in 2022. It was much lower in 2023 – only 22 directives had a transposition date between 1 December 2022 and 30 November 2023. This must be considered when interpreting this year’s good transposition deficit results.
- As the average transposition deadline after adoption is around 2 years (see below Focus on short-overdue directives), the smaller number of Single Market directives to be transposed in 2023 is presumably partly due to the slowdown in legislative activities in 2020 and 2021. During this period, Member State authorities and the EU institutions were trying to cope with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trend in transposition deficit by Member State and EEA EFTA country
- Over the years, the Commission has observed that most Member States have shown a strong political commitment to transposition, effective administrative procedures and better coordination. This commitment is reflected in all indicators.
- European Council targets: The target has been an average transposition deficit of 1.5% or less (from March 2001) and 1% or less (from March 2007). In November 2014, 50% of Member States reached the 0.5% average transposition target proposed in the 2011 Single Market Act. By the end of 2019, 12 Member States had reached the 0.5% target, and 5 were very close to it (0.6%) This shows that the Commission’s proposal is realistic. The importance of these targets, which serve as an incentive, was emphasised in the Communication The single market at 30.
- Financial penalties: Under the Treaty of Lisbon, financial penalties can be imposed when a Member State is first referred to the Court of Justice for failing to notify the transposition of a directive adopted under a legislative procedure. The Communication EU Law: Better results through better application gives a high priority to the handling of cases concerning the timely transposition of directives. As a result the Commission has adopted the same approach as in other infringement cases – it systematically asks the Court to impose a lump sum penalty and a periodic penalty payment.
- The 2019 Court of Justice ruling in case C-543/17 (Commission v. Belgium), confirmed by rulings C-549/18 and C-550/18, clarified the respective roles of Member States and the Commission in setting out the correlation between the provisions of a directive and the corresponding rules in national law. Compliance with this judgment will probably help to reduce the time needed to assess the national legislation implementing a directive.
- In its Better Regulation Guidelines of November 2021, the Commission proposed implementation strategies to support Member States more effectively and facilitate the transposition of new directives. The Commission presented the different forms of support it provides to Member States, including preparing guidance documents, organising expert groups and workshops, creating dedicated websites, and promoting training for practitioners.
- In October 2022, the Commission adopted the Communication Enforcing EU law for a Europe that delivers, which stressed that flawed application of the EU Treaties and legislation has a detrimental impact on the Single Market. As “guardian of the Treaties”, the Commission is responsible for ensuring a level playing field for people and businesses across the EU. Instead of a systematic recourse to infringement procedures, the communication presents a strategy for EU law enforcement based on continuous dialogue and cooperation between the Commission, Member States and the relevant authorities.
- In May 2022, the Commission launched a stocktaking exercise to ensure that the right enforcement tools are available and used to make EU law work in practice. After extensive consultations within the Commission and with Member States, the stocktaking report was published on 14 July 2023. It included several recommendations that the Commission is currently working to implement. Quickly and correctly transposing directives will play a crucial role.
Changes in the average conformity deficit
The conformity deficit measures the number of transposed Single Market directives for which the Commission has launched infringement proceedings for incorrect transposition. It is expressed as a percentage of the number of Single Market directives notified to the Commission as “transposed” or “not requiring any further implementation measures”.
Only the Court of Justice can rule definitively that a directive has not been transposed correctly, and the Commission is still working on the conformity assessment of a number of notified national measures. This should be kept in mind when interpreting the conformity deficit statistics.
This indicator was set in the April 2011 Single Market Act, with a proposed threshold of 0.5%. The March 2023 Communication The Single Market at 30 endorsed this threshold.
- The number of infringement proceedings for incorrect transposition of Single Market directives launched by the Commission has slightly increased. 46 new cases were launched between 1 December 2022 and 30 November 2023, up from 37 between 1 December 2021 and 30 November 2022. However, it is still significantly below the 161 cases launched between 1 December 2018 and 30 November 2019.
- The overall decrease since 2019 can be partly attributed to the more systematic use of EU Pilot dialogue as announced in action 21 of the March 2020 enforcement action plan as well as in point V ‘Early detection and resolution of breaches of EU law’ of the 2022 Communication Enforcing EU law for a Europe that delivers (see the Infringement page for more information). Another reason could be the particularly high number of directives that had transposition deadlines in 2016. The conformity checks on those directives were in full swing in 2019 and 2020. They are now mostly completed.
Changes in the incompleteness rate
The incompleteness rate records the number of outstanding directives that one or more Member States have failed to transpose completely, as a percentage of the total number of Single Market directives. It shows the extent to which the Single Market is not yet a reality in the areas covered under those directives.
The Single Market is incomplete when its rules are not applied or the rights derived from them cannot be exercised uniformly. When one or more Member States fail to transpose directives on time, they leave a void in the EU legal framework. Instead of the Single Market covering all Member States, it remains much smaller and fragmented. Consequently, the economic interests of all Member States suffer if just one Member State does not deliver.
- Over the past 10 years, the incompleteness rate has been fairly stable (4 or 5%). The exception is 2016 when the rate rose to 7% due to a big package of 66 directives that had to be transposed. For 2 years, starting in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Member State authorities to address pressing priorities. At the same time, there was quite a large number of Single Market directives (96) that had to be transposed between 1 December 2019 and 1 December 2021. As a result, the rate grew again to 6%.
- The incompleteness rate has now dropped to the 2020 level (5%). In absolute terms, 46 out of 1 001 Single Market directives due on 30 November 2023 have not been transposed in at least one Member State (this was 60 out of 1 018 directives in 2022). Although this is good progress, the 5% incompleteness rate still means that the Single Market’s legal framework is only operating at 95% of its potential. In short, despite the 30th anniversary celebrations, the Single Market is still not a reality for the sectors concerned.
Main problem areas (and corresponding incompleteness rate)
- Connectivity, media, digital society: 5 directives out of 20 (25%)
- Energy (including energy efficiency): 4 out of 17 (24%)
- Consumers: 4 out of 19 (21%)
- Financial information and company law: 4 out of 22 (18%)
Facts and figures
Focus on “short-overdue” directives
The European Council set a zero-tolerance target in 2002 for delays of 2 years or more in transposing Single Market directives. One purpose of the Scoreboard is therefore to report on the number of long-overdue directives in each Member State. However, successive Scoreboards reveal that Member States may have difficulties in transposing directives by the agreed deadlines (time between the entry into force of the directive and the date agreed for notifying national transposition measures to the Commission). The average delay this year is particularly long, at 18.3 months.
- The transposition deficit is 16.8% considering only the 22 directives that needed to be transposed in the reporting period and that then had the most recent transposition deadlines (1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023). This is more than a year ago, when the transposition deficit for the recent directives was 12.7%, and 24 times the average deficit for all directives (0.7%). The transposition rate varies by Member State, from 100% for Hungary, which transposed all 22 directives, to less than 70% for others: 59% for Belgium (13 directives transposed), 64% for Bulgaria and Luxembourg (14 directives transposed), 68% for Cyprus, Austria and Poland (15 directives transposed).
- In addition to a high transposition deficit, these directives have an incompleteness rate of 32% as 15 of the 22 directives have not been transposed by at least one Member State (the incompleteness rate for all directives is 5%).
- In most cases, short transposition deadlines do not account for the long delays, nor do administrative burdens or the complexity of the directives. Looking at the 22 directives due in this reporting period, there is an average transposition period of almost 3 years (33 months) for the 9 directives adopted by the European Parliament and the Council; there is, an average transposition period of 10 months for the 13 execution directives adopted by the Commission (or by the Council for taxation issues).
- Most Member States need to better plan their transposition and notification processes for directives that must be incorporated into national law. As the guardian of the Treaties, the Commission strives to launch infringement proceedings for non-communication of the expected national measures within 2 months after the transposition deadline. Too many of these infringement proceedings are being launched because of delays for logistical reasons unrelated to the complexity and/or sensitivity of the directives.
- The 2022 Communication Enforcing EU law for a Europe that delivers outlines the many tools the Commission uses to support more efficient and effective implementation (e.g., IT tools, meeting-based tools, reporting tools, prevention tools, ad hoc tools). The stocktaking report published by the Commission on 14 July 2023 focuses on the swift transposition of directives and the Commission’s support to Member States to better anticipate implementation challenges and improve transposition planning and guidance.
Directives undergoing completeness checks
Number of Single Market directives undergoing completeness check as of 5 December 2023 (304)
The Commission is currently examining a very large number of notifications of national measures transposing Single Market directives.
- The graph above concerns Single Market directives that are the subject of an infringement procedure for non-communication. It shows the number of those directives whose transposition has been declared complete by each Member State and for which the Commission is examining whether the notification process is indeed complete. The outcome will be either a new formal step in the procedure or its closure. Concerning notifications made outside existing infringement proceedings, the verification process may result in the Commission taking the decision to open an infringement case. The directives concerned will then be included in the transposition deficit in the next edition of the Scoreboard.
- This explains the difference between the number of formal infringement procedures pending for non-communication of national transposition measures in the Single Market on 1 December 2023 (528) and the number of missing transpositions and transpositions declared as partially notified (198) by Member States (or a formal Commission decision). For many of the notifications made as part of an infringement procedure (or before a formal infringement procedure was launched), the Commission is still examining the notifications. Or, where completeness has already been checked, the Commission has asked for the case to be formally closed or continued (but a formal decision has not yet been taken).
- The number of notifications whose completeness is under examination varies from one Member State to another, from 5 for Germany to 20 for Portugal. The EU average is 11, down from 21 in December 2022. The decrease in the number of notifications currently being analysed is linked to the low number of new directives that had to be transposed in the reporting period. It also marks a return to normal, after the last year’s intense period of notifications, when Member States’ authorities were trying to address the huge backlog casused by the slowdown in transposition activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overdue directives by sector and Member States
This table shows, for each Member State, the total number of Single Market directives not fully notified, broken down by sector, as on 5 December 2023. Sectors in which directives have been fully transposed are included under “Other sectors”. The highlighted figures show the sector(s) with the highest number of overdue directives in each Member State.
Member State | Competition (1) | Connectivity/media/digital society (20) | Consumers (19) | Energy incl. energy consumption (17) | Environment (188) | Financial information and company law (22) | Financial services (66) | Free movement of persons & citizenship of Union (23) | Plant health legislation (133) | Social policy (97) | Taxation (72) | Transport (120) | Other sectors (223) | TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bulgaria | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 17 | ||||||||
Belgium | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 16 | |||||
Poland | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 16 | |||
Spain | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 13 | |||||||
Germany | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 10 | ||||||||
Luxembourg | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | |||||||
Austria | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | |||||||
Czechia | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |||||||
Denmark | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | ||||||||
Estonia | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | ||||||
Cyprus | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | ||||||||||
Slovenia | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | |||||||||
Croatia | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | ||||||||||
Malta | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | |||||||||
Netherlands | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |||||||||
Slovakia | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ||||||||||
Ireland | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |||||||||
Latvia | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||||||||||
Sweden | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |||||||||
Italy | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||
Finland | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||
Portugal | 3 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||||
Greece | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||
Lithuania | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||||||||
Hungary | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||||
Romania | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||
France | 1 | 1 |
Problematic sectors for Member States (more than 30% of all cases)
- Consumers – France (100%), Romania and Slovakia (50%)
- Energy – Hungary (100%), Portugal (75%), Latvia (49%), Greece, Croatia and Lithuania (33%)
- Environment – Malta (33%)
- Financial information and company law – Finland (50%), Czechia, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and the Netherlands (33%)
- Social policy – Ireland and Sweden (40%), Greece, Cyprus and Croatia (33%)
- Transport – Lithuania (67%), Bulgaria (47%), Denmark, Cyprus, Croatia, the Netherlands and Slovakia (33%), Spain (31%)
Clearly, these percentages should be viewed in relation to the total number of overdue directives in each Member State (see “Total” column).
Directives for notification by next Scoreboard
In addition to today’s transposition deficit, it is also important to look at new Single Market directives whose transposition deadline will expire between now and 30 November 2024.
Given the number of directives to be transposed in the next 12 months (see Focus on short-overdue directives above) and some particularly high backlogs, several Member States are not expected to be able to meet the 1% target if they do not take drastic action.
More information
Single Market directives are legal acts considered to have an impact on the functioning of the Single Market, as defined in Article 26(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This includes the four freedoms (freedom of movement of people, goods, services and capital) across borders within the EU, and supporting policies that have a direct impact on the Single Market. These policies include taxation, employment, culture, social policy, education, public health, energy, consumer protection, transport, environment (except nature protection), and information society and media.
The December 2016 Communication on EU law: Better results through better application pointed to the need to strenghten the asessment of the compliance (the effective assessment of the completeness and conformity of national measures implementing EU law). For cases brought to the Court of Justice under Article 260(3) TFEU, the Commission now systematically asks the Court to impose both a lump sum and a periodic penalty payment on Member States that do not communicate their transposition measures. This approach is in line with other infringement cases that can result in financial sanctions.
In its judgment of 8 July 2019 in Case C-543/17, Commission v Belgium, the Court of Justice clarified the scope of Article 260(3) TFEU. On 16 July 2020, the Court of Justice reconfirmed its position in rulings C-549/18, Commission v Romania, and C-550/18, Commission v Ireland, and clarified further the calculation and imposition of daily penalties and lump sums for the non-communication cases. Consequently, the Commission proposals under Article 260(3) TFEU are binding as regards the maximum amount of the penalty. In the context of the calculation of the lump sum, the Court clarified that the calculation of the duration of the infringement starts from the transposition deadline of directive.
The principle of primacy of EU law is grounded in the principle of equality before the Treaties. It ensures equal rights for everyone across the EU, meaning that all provisions of EU law should have the same meaning and are to be applied in the same way in all Member States. In October 2022, the Commission adopted the Communication Enforcing EU law for a Europe that delivers setting out its work to ensure that EU law is complied with and individuals and businesses can benefit from the same rights across the EU. The Communication is structured around six major themes, that can all play a role in improving timely and correct transposition:
- increased cooperation with Member States and specialised authorities
- increased transparency and monitoring
- technical assistance and financial support available from the Commission
- possible use of pre-infringement process for faster compliance
- use of infringement procedures to mainly tackle breaches with the biggest impact on the interests of people and businesses
- flexibility in response to crises.
The Annual Single Market Report was first published in 2021. The third edition was published by the Commission on 31 January 2023, complementing the publication of the 2023 Single Market Scoreboard alongside it. It marked the 30th anniversary of the EU’s Single Market and took stock of the integration of the Single Market over the last 30 years. It highlighted the benefits and key achievements for people and businesses, and its impact on growth and jobs in the EU. It also discussed the Single Market from a longer-term perspective through the current challenges that the EU is facing (increasing geopolitical tensions, global competition, climate change and strategic dependencies risks).
In particular, the report explored the potential of new approaches, partnerships and collaborative tools in strengthening trust among authorities and of better cooperation in addressing persisting Single Market barriers and obstacles. It also touched upon the potential of digital technologies and user-friendly e-government solutions to help reduce the administrative burdens on businesses and administrations.
The Communication “The Single Market at 30”, published on 16 March 2023, highlighted how the Single Market is the EU’s key asset and driver of its competitiveness and major factor of the EU’s economic resilience during crises; it also provides a crucial geopolitical lever that boosts the EU’s standing and influence in the world. However, the Single Market must continue to adapt to new realities and take account of the changing geopolitical environment, technological developments, the green and digital transitions and the need to boost the EU’s long-term competitiveness and productivity. A collective effort, based on joint ownership of the Single Market at EU and national level, is required to continue maintaining and deepening it, and harnessing its full potential.
Looking ahead, the Commission called for a renewed focus on enforcing existing Single Market rules, supported by benchmarks to address the deficits related to transposing and implementing EU rules. It also underlined the importance of removing national barriers, in particular barriers to providing services across borders, and in the industrial ecosystems with the greatest potential for economic integration (retail, construction, tourism, business services and the renewable energy sector).