Report: Reforming compliance management in the Single Market

The correct application of EU rules is paramount for the functioning of the Single Market. Yet, as discussed in our earlier report In quest of compliance, the EU Member States do not fully comply with the Single market’s rules and principles.

This, in turn, creates significant problems for citizens and companies and prevents the Single Market from fully delivering projected benefits.

In the present paper, the National Board of Trade discusses an ambitious decentralisation reform of the enforcement of EU law as a means to reduce the compliance deficit in the EU.

We explore the idea of setting up National Enforcement Agencies in each Member State.

Entrusted with the task of investigating local infringements of the Single Market rules, these agencies would also have the possibility to bring cases before the national courts. This reform would enable to solve local compliance problems at the local level and also reassert the Member States’ ownership of the Single Market.