European Union News - Internal Market

The European Commission presented two proposals to reinforce the EU's existing rules on anti-money laundering and fund transfers. The two proposals foresee a reinforcement of the sanctioning powers of the competent authorities by introducing for instance a set of minimum principle-based rules to strengthen administrative sanctions and a requirement for them to coordinate actions when dealing with cross-border cases.

The second review of the financial sector assistance programme for Spain carried out from 28 January to 1 February 2013 concluded that since the start of the last review, programme implementation has progressed, bolstered by developments in global capital markets and effective initiatives at a European level to tackle the sovereign debt crisis.

Eurostat reported that industrial producer prices decreased by 0.2% in both euro area and in the EU in December 2012 compared with November 2012. Prices fell in almost all Member States for which data are available, except Belgium, Sweden and Finland.

António Vitorino, Mediator on private copying and reprography levies, presented its recommendations to the European Commission. He proposed to foster increased reliance on licences and contractual arrangements as the best way to ensure that right holders are properly remunerated for their creative efforts and investments; and he recommends measures aimed at reconciling disparate national levy systems within the Single Market.

The European Commission seeks experts to examine legal obstacles to cross-border trade in insurance products caused by different contract laws in the EU’s Member States. Experts will take part in a group that will report at the end of 2013, after which the Commission will decide on any possible follow-up actions.

The European Commission launched a public consultation to identify and eliminate any gaps in the Single Market legislation for industrial products, in particular if there are any obstacles to the trade of new products and new technologies, such as key enabling technologies or 3-D printing. This public consultation is open to a wide stakeholder audience and the deadline for submissions is 17 April 2013.

The European Commission presented a European Retail Action Plan to avoid a number of barriers that hinder the smooth functioning of cross-border sourcing, consumer access to cross-border retail services and market entry for retailers. At the same time, the Commission launched a public consultation on unfair trading practices in the business-to-business food and non-food supply chain.