Two-thirds of the European Union’s 27 member countries have failed to properly implement laws and procedures to help service businesses operate across borders, in spite of being set an end-2009 deadline.
Three years after the so-called EU services directive was passed, only nine member states had made “good” progress on implementation by the December 28 deadline last year, according to Eurochambers, the association of European Chambers of Commerce.
The services directive – controversial when it was proposed and heavily amended before being passed – aims to make it easier for services businesses to set up in other countries: for example, by establishing a single point of contact for necessary paperwork and allowing form-filling to be done electronically.
Supporters of the legislation argue that services account for more than two-thirds of the economic activity and jobs in the EU – and yet in many cases, service-based businesses operate in a domestic market only.
The idea is that if barriers to services trade were removed – so that consultants or hairdressers, say, found it easier to move across borders – there would be a significant boost to Europe’s economy and perhaps hundreds of thousands of jobs created.
Countries across the 27-nation bloc were given until December 28 last year to implement the directive. But according to the Eurochambers survey, published on Tuesday, only nine had made significant progress by that stage – namely, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK.
Another third were making “moderate” progress, but running late in terms of either legal or operational implementation. These countries included Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Spain.
The rest were lagging significantly – that is, Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. There were no data for Lithuania.
“Overall, the results are not encouraging,” Alessandro Barberis, Eurochambers president.
And even those countries were the most progress has been made acknowledged that there were still practical elements which need to be added or worked on. For example, Sweden now has a very clear and reasonably comprehensive “single point of contact” website. But the domestic chambers of commerce said there was “ongoing work” to provide for e-signatures.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010.
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