Ireland’s speed at adopting legislation governing the European Union’s internal market has improved considerably and the State is now ranked joint 15th out of 27 in terms of transposing EU directives into national law on time.
However, it ranked only 18th out of 27 in terms of the number of infringement cases related to the failure to adopt EU directives, with 56 proceedings pending.
In a report published today by internal markets commissioner Charlie McCreevy, Ireland's transposition deficit - the percentage of internal market directives that have yet to be implemented into national law – was found to be 0.9 per cent ahead of the 1 per cent target agreed for 2009.
The Internal Market Scoreboard indicates that Ireland was 15 directives away from a zero deficit.
The report said Ireland along with 13 other states had achieved or equalled their best score since joining the union.
Denmark and Malta shared the first place with a 0.3 per cent deficit, being only five directives away from a zero deficit.
Luxembourg and Poland performed the worst each country having more than 30 directives outstanding and a transposition deficit rate of almost double the EU average.
Italy and Spain accounted for the most of the open infringement cases with 215 between them.
Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche said: "We have secured our best score to date, a deficit score of 0.9 per cent and have reached the agreed 1 per cent target in advance of the 2009 deadline."
"Our European Union membership provides guaranteed access to the Single Market of almost 500 million people, across the 27 Member States of the EU.
Access to this large and wide market is as crucial to our well-being now as at any time, and it is essential that we continue to be efficient participants and beneficiaries," it said.
