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Member States score the best-ever results in the Internal Market Scoreboard yet action is still required on the application of rules. 
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According to the European Commission's latest Internal Market Scoreboard, the Member States have achieved the best results ever in transposing rules into national law on time.
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The average of Internal Market directives for which the implementation deadline has passed and are not currently written into national law has gone down to 0.7% as opposed to 1.0% in July 2009; which is way below the target agreed by the Heads of State, that of 1.0%which was to be achieved by the end of 2009.
Malta for the third consecutive time together with Lithuania scored the highest with just 3 Directives away from attaining a perfect score.The number of Member States achieving this target went up from 18 to 20 Member States which are at or below the target, 16 Member States have achieved their best result so far, whilst 7 Member States - Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Luxembourg and Greece are considered to be the laggards since they are still above the target and hindering further reduction of the deficit. There has also been a reduction in the number of Directives not correctly transposed. Adding the number of directives not correctly transposed to the number of directives not transposed in time, results in an EU average deficit of 1.5% compared to 1.8% half a year ago.
On average it takes an extra 9 months to transpose directives after the transposition deadline expires, hence Member States need to focus their attention on reducing transposition delays, particularly Greece and Luxembourg who are the worst offenders in this respect. The number of infringement cases have also reduced slightly by 1.2%, the areas of "taxation and custom union" as well as the "environment" remain the biggest sources of infringements. Italy accounts for the most open infringements proceedings, followed by Greece and Spain. Moreover the duration of the proceedings are taking too long, for it takes the Member States 18 months on average to comply with the rulings of the European Court of Justice, despite the legal obligations for immediate action to be taken. Austria and Spain account for the longest delay, an approximate average of 25 months.
The Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier said that the Internal Market as a whole will benefit with these excellent results and encourages the 7 Member States who have not as yet reached the target to redouble their efforts. Nevertheless, he noted that the issue with regards to the quality of implementation and practical application of the rules remains a big problem. Compliance with Court rulings is fundamental and any obstacles should not be accepted which are to be enforced strictly under the new Treaty. Furthermore he wants to 'establish a true partnership with the Member States to better understand and prevent these problems' and 'put the citizens and businesses back at the heart of the Internal Market'.
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