European internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy has warned that the EU will take infringement proceedings against member states that fail to transpose directives into their domestic legal codes swiftly.

Mr McCreevy said the time had come for a "regulatory pause" in relation to the drive to create a single European market for financial services, but said he was "not happy at all" that the rate of transposition of the financial services action plan had worsened.

"I think that member states should renew their political commitment and demonstrate that they take transposition seriously," he said. "The commission will remain vigilant in addressing any shortcomings in the transposition process. We will launch infringement proceedings swiftly if the member states do not carry out their obligations properly."

Addressing a meeting in Dublin of the Institute of European Affairs, Mr McCreevy indicated that only a small number of additional measures would be required to complete the single market for financial services once the original action plan was transposed into national legal systems.

"I am not intending to convince you that we need the Financial Services Action Plan II. Quite the contrary, we do not need any new overwhelming plan. We need a regulatory pause, a phase of consolidation to work on proper implementation and enforcement," he said.

"And maybe in forthcoming years a few focused initiatives, targeted on the areas which lack cross-border integration."

Mr McCreevy said that the next step for the commission would be to evaluate the impact on the financial markets of the action plan in 2006-2008, after all the measures had been implemented.