Member states put in improved performance

The European Commission’s tough line on member states that fail to implement EU directives on time or correctly seems to be working. During the last six months of 2005, member states came closer to the target deficit rate set by the European Commission than ever before. In this article, IR&A looks at the data and finds that while the headline deficit rates have improved, progress on implementation of all the measures under the Financial Services Action Plan is slow, with only two of the older member states in full compliance.

Member states have improved their implementation of European rules in their best effort to date, said the European Commission on revealing new and improved figures.It said that at a deficit rate of 1.6%,member states are now just 0.1% away from the target deficit rate of 1.5% having improved significantly in the last six months of 2005,from a deficit rate of 1.9% in July 2005. “This is the best overall result since monitoring began in 1997,” the Commission said. The European Commission said it wants to see the 1.5% target achieved by the next Internal Scoreboard exercise, and ultimately reduced to 0%.