European Union News - Internal Market

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) published a report in which it states that the effectiveness and efficiency of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) spending on financial instruments for SMEs were hampered by the regulatory framework being inappropriate for the different types of financial instruments used.

The European Commission acted to ensure that this two Member States comply with their obligations to implement EU rules on defence procurement. In particular, the Commission is concerned that they have failed to fulfil their commitments under the Directive regarding procurement of arms, munitions and war material for defence purposes, and also the procurement of sensitive supplies, works and services for security purposes. The European Institution may refer the matter to the Court of Justice if the national authorities do not reply satisfactorily within two months.

The General Affairs Council meeting adopted the regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin which supposes a single legal instrument. This convention is going to facilitate the application of identical rules of origin for the purpose of diagonal cumulation of origin for goods traded in the Euro-Mediterranean zone.

According to the European Commission, if adopted as a new own resource of the EU budget the financial transaction tax (FTT), it will reduce Member States' GNI contributions to the EU budget by 50%. According to the estimates presented by the European Commission, Member States' contributions would be slashed by €54 billions in 2020.

Internal Market Committee voted in favour of a draft regulation to modernise the European standarisation process. MEPs agree that using common standards reduces sales costs and helps to ensure that the EU single market works smoothly.

The European Commission presented specific measures to increase the protection of posted workers, specially to address issues of abuse where workers do not enjoy their full rights in terms of pay or holidays. The measures proposed do not change 1996 Directive's provisions, they only aim to improve the way such Directive is applied in practice. The Commission also adopted a new regulation to show that workers' rights and their freedom to strike are on an equal footing with the freedom to provide services.

The European Commission presented a proposal which aims to ensure that all companies (both European and non-European firms) are on an equal footing when it comes to competing for business in the EU's lucrative public procurement market. According to the Commission, the main objective of the initiative is to help open worldwide public procurement markets and to ensure European businesses have fair access to them.

The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee approved the text which proposes that corporate taxation should be a compulsory common base to reduce tax shopping and red tape. This amends the Commission's proposal on this matter which indicated that should be applied as a voluntary scheme.