European Union News - Internal Market

A Europe-wide online poll to select a design for a commemorative €2 coin has chosen a design by Greek sculptor George Stamatopoulos. His design symbolises the currency as the latest step in a long history of trade within and outside Europe. The winning design will be on 90 million coins minted and put into circulation next year to mark the 10th anniversary of the completion of economic and monetary union (EMU).

The Third Postal Directive was published in the Official Journal on the 27th February 2008. The publication marks the entry into force of the directive and sets the clock ticking for abolishing legal monopolies on postal services by 31 December 2010. The Directive is the result of a broad political consensus on the way forward for the regulatory framework of European postal services. The Commission will monitor and assist Member States pro-actively in implementing the Directive. In particular, it will pay close attention to potential entry barriers that would deprive users of the benefit of a dynamic and open market.

The European Commission welcomed ,on the 21st February 2008, the adoption by the European Parliament of a broad package of measures to facilitate the functioning of the internal market for goods. This will make it easier for companies, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises, to sell their products in the EU whilst increasing the protection of consumers. For industrial products existing market surveillance systems will be strengthened and for the first time aligned with import controls. Accreditation has also been introduced. This is a formal system which may now be used to ensure that conformity assessment bodies (or testing and certification laboratories) provide the high quality services that manufacturers need. The introduction of these measures serves to reinforce the role and credibility of CE marking. Improvements are also proposed for the trade with goods which do not fall under EU-legislation. From now it will also be the duty of a Member State that intends to refuse market access for products that are legally marketed in other Member States to talk to the enterprise and to give detailed objective reasons for any possible refusal, This creates new benefits for entrepreneurs as well as for consumers broadening their choice. It is expected that the Council of the EU will approve the package of measures soon, so it can enter into force next year.

The case concerned the proposed acquisition by the Irish-based airline Ryanair of its competitor Aer Lingus. Both companies offer scheduled air transport services. Their operations overlap in particular at Dublin airport. The proposed acquisition, whereby Ryanair acquires sole control over Aer Lingus. The Commission's investigation confirmed that there are substantial barriers to entry which would make difficult any new entry to the routes where the activities of the merging parties overlap.

The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the European Payments Council officially launched, on 28th January, the first SEPA (Single Euro Payment Area) payment instruments for credit transfers in euros. To commemorate such an event the Internal Market and Services Commissioner, Charlie Mc Creevy, Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, member of the Administrations Council of the ECB and Gerard Hartsink, President of the European Payments Council organised "SEPA goes live", an event which took place in Brussels and attended by various distinguished guests from the European Payments Market.

On 12 February 2008, the Council examined the updated convergence programme of Romania, which covers the period 2007 to 2010. Romania has experienced strong economic growth averaging 6,5 % annually between 2003 and 2006. However, the strongly performing economy is showing clear signs of overheating with a high and growing external account deficit (projected at close to 13 % of GDP in 2007) with a smaller coverage of FDI financing-despite sustained non-privatization related investment in 2007 — but still mitigated by a larger share of medium and long term capital inflows based on so far available 2007 data.

On 12 February 2008, the Council examined the updated stability programme of Luxembourg, which covers the period 2007 to 2010. Since the end of the 2001-2003 slowdown, Luxembourg is experiencing a new period of strong growth. On average, real GDP grew by 5,25 % and domestic employment by over 3 % a year in 2004-2007. In this context, Luxembourg has been able to bring its public finances back to surplus. Growth should remain strong during the period covered, even if it is forecast to slow down slightly in the coming years. However, despite the currently good condition of the economy and especially of public finances, the problem of population ageing will be particularly severe in Luxembourg and long-term sustainability is therefore a serious challenge.

In order to finance and stimulate innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the European Commission has proposed measures to boost cross-border investments of venture capital funds. Up to now venture capital funds, which are vitally important for the financing of growing innovative small companies, face too many problems to overcome different national regulations for cross-border fund raising and investment. For this reason they often don't reach the necessary critical mass.  Venture capital is being increasingly important for environmental sustainability (€1.25 billion was raised in 2006). Sustainable venture capital funds invest in the range of €1-5 million with focus on early-stage and typical investments in renewable energies and clean technologies.

Concerted action through key policy instruments will speed up market development of fast-growing products and services, without interfering with competitive forces. The first six areas - eHealth, protective textiles, sustainable construction, recycling, bio-based products and renewable energies - which have been identified for the "Lead Market Initiative" (LMI) are highly innovative, respond to customers’ needs, have a strong technological and industrial base in Europe and depend more than other markets on the creation of favourable framework conditions through public policy actions. The initiative calls for the urgent coordination of policy through ambitious action plans for these markets, rapidly bringing visible advantage for Europe’s economy and consumers.

The European Commission Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry have released their Innovation Policy Projects for 2008. The various projects will involve monitoring SMEs throughout Europe on their performance and activity in order to promote e-learning between SMEs, to improve  the use of ICT products in SMEs and provide complete reports of  tangible information for the future.

The European Parliament adopted the new Postal Directive, giving its final political approval to EU postal reform. The vote confirms the broad political consensus on the way forward for opening EU postal markets to full competition. The Commission will assist Member States in implementing the new Directive and will take an active role in monitoring closely market developments to make sure that EU citizens and businesses obtain the benefits from high quality postal services foreseen by the Directive.

The commission of the European Communities published on 28th January 2008 the COM(2008) 23 final 2008/0019 (COD) related to the Proposal for a directive…/…/EC of the European parliament and the council on the legal protection of computer programmes. The function of a computer program is to communicate and work together with other components of a computer system and with users and, for this purpose, a logical and, where appropriate, physical interconnection and interaction is required to permit all elements of software and hardware to work with other software and hardware and with users in all the ways in which they are intended to function. The parts of the program which provide for such interconnection and interaction between elements of software and hardware are generally known as “interfaces”. This functional interconnection and interaction is generally known as “interoperability”; such interoperability can be defined as the ability to exchange information and mutually to use the information which has been exchanged.