Union needs to hurry up with Services Directive, report says

摘要

The European Union's member states have a number of fundamental problems with the implementation of the so-called Services Directive, an essential piece of legislation supposed to make life easier for service providers and their customers. A new survey, conducted by Eurochambres midway through the implementation, shows that some member states might not put the new rules in place before the December 2009 deadline. The directive was adopted in late 2006, and member states were given three years to put it into practice. However, the survey, released on 15 July, gives a mixed picture of their performance and shows that there are vast disparities across the Union. "We are worried by the varying pace of the implementation and by the fact that some countries, already lagging behind six or 12 months ago, are now even further behind schedule," said Arnaldo Abruzzini, secretary-general of Eurochambres, which represents over 19 million enterprises. The report shows that a big majority of EU members has put in place mechanisms to implement the directive and some of them (eg Finland or Luxembourg) have already completed the legislative screening.