Skip to main content
European Commission logo
enen

Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs 2022

2022 Annual Report on monitoring the application of EU law - Infringement cases by policy area

Infringement cases open at year-end 2018 - 2022

[notranslate]infringement_cases_open_at_year_end_2018_2022[/notranslate]

By clicking on the multi-level chart, you can consult, for 2022, the number of infringement cases open at the year-end per policy sector and per type of infringement.

Compliance promotion activities in 2022

Guidelines on how to implement EU law

In the field of public procurement, the Commission was active in supporting the smooth implementation of EU legislation:

  • Following the introduction of public procurement related restrictions to the Regulation imposing sanctions on Russia in response of its aggression on Ukraine, the Commission published an extensive explanatory document (Questions and Answers).
  • Big Buyers for Climate and Environment is a European Commission Initiative for promoting collaboration between big public buyers in implementing strategic public procurement for sustainable solutions. In 2022, the Commission created and consolidated seven Communities of Practice for the 2023 launch of the Digital Public Buyers Community Platform. This platform has the purpose to digitalise the area of public procurement by setting up a distributive public procurement network among public buyers themselves and between the public buyers and the Commission. It also aims to establish the Commission's main channel for communications on public procurement tools, trainings and events and to connect public procurers to other relevant forms, communities and initiatives from the European Commission. The Communities are:
    • AI community on buying Artificial Intelligence Solutions;
    • Central Purchasing Bodies Network;
    • Public Procurement Experts Alumni Network;
    • Sustainable Solar Panels;
    • Roll out of Building Innovation Modelling (BIM) in public procurement;
    • Legal Review Bodies Network Eastern Europe;
    • Network of Competence Centres.
  • The Commission also initiated the training programme for central purchasing bodies, with the purpose of promoting the professionalisation of public procurement practitioners and establishing a sustainable Alumni Network among the participants. The programme launched in 2018 and is now on its third edition.
  • The Commission set up the sustainable public procurement HelpDesk. The HelpDesk is one of the means for supporting public authorities to green their purchasing decisions. The main aim of the HelpDesk is to provide timely and accurate answers to stakeholders' enquiries, and to promote and disseminate information on green public procurement, also through News Alert.

In other areas, the Commission was active in its support of smooth implementation of single market legislation:

  • The Commission prepared a guidance note on the recognition in the EU of professional qualifications acquired in the United Kingdom and shared it with Member States. Most importantly, the note clarified that qualifications obtained in the United Kingdom by EU nationals before the end of the transition period set out by the Withdrawal Agreement (1 January 2021) are EU qualifications under the Professional Qualifications Recognition Directive (Directive 2005/36/EC). The Commission has also published an FAQ page on this matter, which has been translated into all EU languages.
  • In December 2022, the Commission published a package of practical and up-to-date guidance to help EU countries with the application of important pieces of EU law in the area of the single market for services:

Meetings with Member States

  • Toys: the Expert Group on Toys Safety met in its general formation on 26 April and 19 October 2022, as well as in its formation on Administrative Cooperation on 24 January and 22 March 2022, gathering the market surveillance authorities of different Member States, to discuss on specific issues of the Toy Safety Directive (Directive 2009/48/EC) with a view to ensure its consistent application and interpretation. Within these groups and together with market surveillance authorities, work has been done on updating a number of guidance documents ensuring a common interpretation of the Toy Safety Directive, which will be published in early 2023.
  • Fertilising products:
    • The expert group on Fertilising Products organised an online info session on Fertilising Products Regulation (FPR): the Commission organised an event on the implementation of the FPR rules (Regulation (EU) 2019/1009) and specifically on “How to CE-mark your fertilising product”. Speakers from Commission services, representatives of notified bodies and industry, explained technical and legal aspects of the FPR and replied to questions from the participants (representatives of industry and competent national authorities). An EU survey was launched prior to the event where participants were requested to submit questions. This practice allowed speakers to identify issues in advance and reply to a wide range of questions. The recording and all presentation used during this event are publicly available on CIRCA BC.
    • FAQs document: this is a living document on Frequently Asked Questions relevant to the implementation of the FPR provisions. All replies incorporated to the FAQ document are endorsed by the Commission Expert Group on fertilising products. The FAQ document is regularly updated.
  • Detergents:
    • The Detergents Working Group met on 2 December 2022 to discuss practical issues on the implementation of the Detergents Regulation (Regulation (EC) 648/2004) and its ongoing revision. Agendas, minutes and meeting documents are available on CIRCA BC.
    • FAQs Document: This is a living document on Frequently Asked Questions relevant to the implementation of the Detergents Regulation. All replies incorporated to the FAQ document are endorsed by the Detergents Working Group. The FAQ document is regularly updated.
  • Pyrotechnic articles and drug precursors
    • The Group of Experts on Pyrotechnic Articles met on 14 June and 16 December 2022 to discuss practical issues related to the implementation of Directive 2013/29/EU. At a special meeting in Paris on 31 May, the group discussed security aspects, including cases of misuse, abuse and miscategorisation of pyrotechnic articles.
    • The Group of Experts on Drug Precursors met on 12-13 May and 27-28 October 2022 to discuss practical issues related to the implementation of the Drug Precursors Regulation (Regulation (EC) 273/2004) and the Drug Precursors Trade Monitoring Regulation (Regulation (EC) 111/2005). The discussions concerned the daily operation of the EU database on drug precursors, which allows the Commission to have an overview of the application of the EU rules. Questions on the application of the rules were also gathered into an FAQs document, aiming to ensure a common approach.

Package meetings

Package meetings are meetings between the Commission and a Member State to discuss implementation issues and infringement or EU Pilot cases in a given policy area. They can be held before the Commission has detected a breach of EU law or concern existing infringement cases of the Member State. Package meetings can be an efficient tool to deal with challenges a Member State may face in a policy area, across different acts of EU legislation.

In 2022, the Commission held one package meeting in the area of services. The Commission met with Germany in July 2022 about complaints and infringement cases in this area, in particular regarding compliance of German legislation with the Professional Qualifications Directive and the Proportionality Test Directive.

Other compliance promotion tools

  • The SOLVIT cooperation mechanism provides an example of Member States working proactively together and with the Commission to ensure proper implementation of EU law in the single market. The fact that SOLVIT centres are positioned within national administrations allows them to address in a pragmatic way compliance issues arising from lack of knowledge of EU norms, entrenched administrative practices, and sometimes domestic reluctance to adapt to EU rules. In 2022, SOLVIT handled 2 254 cases in various fields of EU legislation of which 85% were solved. In addition, SOLVIT data was used in 2022 by the Commission in a variety of infringement actions and dialogues with Member States, including those related to the application of EU rules on free movement of goods, mutual recognition of professional qualifications, financial services, free movement of workers, social security coordination and free movement of persons. 
  • Your Europe Advice (YEA) is an advice service, financed by the Commission and run by a contractor, with a network of about 60 legal experts. It plays a key role in the Commission’s enforcement strategy, acting as a filter for individual questions and complaints. It is intertwined with Your Europe (Single Digital Gateway) and SOLVIT. For example, Your Europe Advice transfers complaints involving potential misapplications of EU law to SOLVIT. Your Europe Advice can be accessed from most pages of the Your Europe portal and is part of its wider assistance service finder. With over 25 000 enquiries received per year, YEA is an invaluable source of information on how EU law is applied on the ground and where difficulties arise. Data from Your Europe Advice is used by policymakers within the Commission (the most recent example being its contribution to the revision of the 2009 Guidelines for better application of the Free Movement Directive (Directive 2004/38/EC).
  • The Internal Market Information System allows swift and efficient exchanges of information between Member States’ administrative bodies. By using very modern digital means, it considerably eases the implementation of EU rules in 19 internal market policy areas. For instance, the module of Internal Market Information (IMI) launched in February 2022 to support the submission of posting declarations under the Mobility Package has consistently expanded support to the enforcement of EU law. Road transport operators throughout Europe can now submit their drivers’ posting declaration fully online in a simple way.
  • In the Single Market Enforcement Taskforce (SMET) the Commission and Member States work together as equal partners to remove concrete barriers to ensure better and smarter implementation of the single market rules. SMET members together prioritise some of the most pressing barriers on the single market, assess national practices in implementing single market rules, and develop together concrete solutions to address the identified priority barriers – often based on national best practices. The SMET also works to improve the functioning of various single market instruments. The SMET held several meetings during 2022 where it discussed how to address concrete and procedural barriers to the deployment of renewable energy technologies in the EU and the possible steps that can be taken to streamline the administrative requirements for cross-border service providers. Moreover, it released a report on its achievements for 2021 and 2022, in particular in the agri-food sector including non-harmonised production products.
  • The Scoreboard measures performance and outcomes of the single market in different policy areas and tools. By doing so, it provides an overview of how well the single market is functioning. It provides detailed information on enforcement tools, including by country, business framework conditions as well as on outcomes and competitiveness of the single market.
  • The EU network of first instance review bodies on public procurement met two times in 2022 to discuss the Commission’s next steps in reviewing public procurement, the impact of the Sanctions Regulation on the review of public procurement, and the Court’s latest case-law in this field.
  • In 2022, the Commission mandated the study on trade secrets in the data economy. The study develops recommendations in the areas of operationally improving firm performance when using trade secrets for shared data, reducing possible ambiguity and improving clearness when interpreting the Trade Secrets Directive (Directive (EU) 2016/943) and improving and monitoring the legal framework surrounding the use of trade secrets for protecting shared confidential and commercially valuable data.

Follow-up given to petitions

In 2022, the Commission did not handle any petition concerning an alleged breach of EU law in the policy area of Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.

Important Court of Justice ruling against Member States

  • Commission v Spain (Violation du droit de l'Union par le législateur), C-278/20.

Important preliminary rulings

Outlook for 2023

In 2023, the Commission will continue important enforcement work in the area of Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. In particular, the Commission plans to:

  • Finalise completeness checks and take further steps where necessary regarding the transposition of:
    • the Proportionality Test Directive (Directive (EU) 2018/958) on a proportionality test before adoption of new regulation of professions, and
    • the Professional Qualifications Directive (Directive 2005/36/EC) on the recognition of professional qualifications.
  • Actively progress on the remaining cases concerning the implementation of the obligations under the three public procurement, concessions and utilities directives (respectively, Directives 2014/24/EU, 2014/23/EU and 2014/25/EU), following the compliance check of the national transposition measures, together with a number of cases addressing other non-conformity and bad application instances.
  • Take the necessary steps to address infringements under the Late Payment Directive (Directive 2011/7/EU), focusing on the public authorities’ systemic practice of paying late to their suppliers putting more financial pressure on companies, in particular SMEs, but also addressing non-conformity instances in Member States’ legislation.