| Kroes ‘concerned’ over UK transparency |
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| Friday, 09 November 2007 | |
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The European Commission has launched an infringement procedure against the UK and six other member states for their failure to implement a European financial transparency directive.
The European Commission has decided to send formal requests for information to the EU countries for their alleged failure to communicate national measures to implement a directive on amending financial relations between public authorities and public undertakings, to the commission. The requests for information were sent under EC Treaty infringement procedures to Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg and the UK for their alleged failure to notify the Commission of measures to implement Commission Directive 2005/81/EC. In addition, the Commission said it had decided to address similar formal requests to the Slovak Republic and Latvia, which have notified implementing measures which do not comply with the requirements of the directive. The requests take the form of letters of formal notice, the first stage of the infringement procedure. The member states now have two months to reply to the Commission's concerns. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes commented: "The full implementation of the Transparency Directive is crucial to enable the Commission to check that public money is used to pay for providing public services. That is very much in the European taxpayers' interest." Member states were required to implement Commission Directive 2005/81/EC in national law by 19 December 2006. The European Commission said that Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom have so far failed to communicate their national implementing measures to the Commission. Related links |
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