2007 Annual Report
| Annual Report | Chapter 1: Introduction |
| (full report) | Chapter 2: Internal Market |
| Chapter 3: Competition | |
| Chapter 4: State aid | |
| Annex |
Foreword
With the latest enlargement of the European Union to 27 Member States and the corresponding expansion of the European Economic Area to 30 states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway are taking part in the Single Market, whose total population is now 500 million. This brings along a wide variety of opportunities for both inhabitants and undertakings. However, to make the Internal Market a reality requires a level playing field and dynamic development of relevant regulation. Last year, 416 legal acts were incorporated into the EEA Agreement. The EFTA Surveillance Authority continues to facilitate the smooth functioning of the Internal Market by ensuring that the EFTA States comply with their obligations under the EEA Agreement.
The statistics in this report demonstrate that 2007 was a busy year for the Authority. The special effort to close old cases continued throughout the year. The number of cases that are more than three years old dropped from 142 to 47 in 2007.
The Authority has the mandate to monitor the EEA Agreement in a consistent and coherent manner. The high number of letters of formal notice and reasoned opinions in 2007 is dominated by an increasing number of infringement cases related to delays in incorporation of regulations. Last year the Authority increased focus on tackling this problem, as reflected in the statistics, and is now devoting more resources to the issue of regulations.
Changes in political focus in the EEA influence the Authority's workload and priorities. In 2007, energy, the environment and climate change were high on the political agenda, and thus increased the Authority's tasks, e.g., those relating to emissions trading systems.
Twice a year, and in parallel with the European Commission, the Authority publishes the Internal Market Scoreboard. The Scoreboard indicates how well EEA EFTA States perform with regard to the implementation of directives. With an average transposition deficit of 1.7% at 10 November 2007, all the EFTA States rank below the average in the EU, i.e., 1.2%. Hopefully this negative trend will be turned around in 2008.
Per Sanderud
President
