Towards Smarter Enforcement and Compliance in the EU?

To help determine the future direction of EU legislation, the Commission has reached out to stakeholders to sound out their views on issues of enforcement and compliance in the internal market for goods. Orgalime is pleased to provide its response to what is a crucial issue for our industry. Simple and effective approaches to enforcement and compliance are vital to the successful operation of the Single Market – and, as a result, to creating jobs and growth in Europe.

For Orgalime, all steps taken to simplify EU legislation and make it easier for companies to comply will be steps in the right direction. Moreover, we are in favour of strengthening the capacity of national market surveillance authorities to ensure that all firms are competing on a level playing field.

We hope that our input will help lay the groundwork for a smarter compliance and market surveillance system across the EU. This will mean retaining the flexibility of the New Approach to technical harmonisation, and simplifying the process for demonstrating compliance with technical rules. Ultimately, this approach can go some way to preventing rogue economic operators from bending the rules of fair competition – benefitting the market as a whole.

Going forward, it will be vital to keep the dialogue between national authorities and companies open – enabling firms to voluntarily carry out the necessary corrective measures. Orgalime is against a ‘digital compliance system’, as this would work against such an open dialogue. Further, sanctions should be effective and proportionate: this implies tougher measures for market players that deliberately flout the rules to gain a competitive edge.

Find out more about the issues involved in our position paper.