Single Market Scoreboard 2021

European Single Market Scoreboard 2021

The European Commission’s Single Market Scoreboard measures the performance of the single market, and the performance of member states within the market. Its 2021 edition finds Ireland in a deficit of transposing directives into law but performing well in reducing its single market-related pending infringement cases.

Transposition

Ireland’s transposition deficit for 2020, as included in the 2021 scoreboard, stands at 1.3 per cent, a 0.5 percentage point increase from 2019’s 0.8 per cent, making the State one of 11 EU member states whose increasing deficit over 2021 brought them over the EU target and average of 1 per cent. The proposed target in the Single Market Act is 0.5 per cent.

With 13 overdue directives, an increase of five was recorded. One directive, 2014/52/EU on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment was found to be three-and-a-half years overdue, a figure which greatly distorted the average delay of transposition. The average was found to be 12.2 months, which was a five-month decrease from 2020 nonetheless, although still markedly above the EU average of 7.4 months.

Ireland has also recorded its largest ever conformity deficit of 1.3 per cent, with 13 directives presumed to have been incorrectly transposed. While this represents a 0.2 percentage point increase from 2019, it is below the EU average of 1.4 per cent. The proposed target for this area under the Single Market Act is again 0.5 per cent.

Infringements

With 23 single market-related pending cases, Ireland is one of just five member states to have reduced their number of cases within the year 2020. The EU average stands at 31 and Ireland has now not exceeded the average in this regard since May 2010. 2020 saw the launching of 198 new cases in Europe, not including those for late transposition; only three of these were against Ireland, the lowest number among member states and well below the average of seven.

Ireland’s most problematic sectors were found to be environment (eight pending cases, including four on water protection and management) and transport (four pending cases). Ireland is however the member state with the second longest average duration of cases, 51.6 months for the 21 single market-related cases not yet sent to the European Court. The EU average stands at 37.3 months. One-third of Irish pending cases have been pending for between six and 15 years.

Ireland recorded the second biggest decrease in average time to comply with court rulings, from 47.5 months in 2019 to 27.4 months in 2020. The EU average was 31.7 months for 2020. This decrease is mainly due to the fact that four cases are now more than five years old and are no longer part of the calculation.

Internal Market Information System

Ireland’s performance within the Internal Market Information System was found to be “excellent”, with all five indicators showing performance above the EEA average and four indicators (requests accepted within one week, requests answered by the deadline agreed, satisfaction with timeliness of replies as

7.00%

Evolution of the deficit in transposition of EU directives

Evolution of infringement cases

6.00%

5.00%

4.00%

3.00%

2.00%

1.00%

0.00% 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Ireland EU average

Source: Single Market Scoreboard 2021, European Commission.

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

(not including those for late transposition)

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Ireland EU average

Source: Single Market Scoreboard 2021, European Commission.

rated by counterparts, and satisfaction with efforts made as rated by counterparts) showing improvement. Ireland’s speed in answering requests did decrease, from nine days to 12, but still remained under the EEA average of 15.

Trade in goods and services

Ireland recorded a high level of trade integration in the single market for services, with intra-EU trade integration for services accounting for 25.3 per cent of GDP in 2019, an increase of 5.1 per cent. Conversely, trade integration for goods decreased from 2018-2019, falling 8.3 per cent to account for 21.6 per cent of GDP.

Intra-EU imports in services also increased, by 5.6 per cent, accounting for 22.3 per cent of GDP. Again, imports in goods fell, by 6.4 per cent, to account for 17.4 per cent of GDP.

Foreign direct investment

2019 saw Ireland disinvesting from other EU countries and other EU countries disinvesting from Ireland, in both cases at lower levels than 2018. Intra-EU FDI flows showed year-on-year changes of 0.84 per cent inwards and 0.70 per cent outwards. The value of Ireland’s FDI stock in other countries rose by 0.15 per cent in the same period, with the value of EU countries’ FDI stock in Ireland falling by 0.13 per cent.

2019 also saw Ireland disinvesting from non-EU countries, while FDI into Ireland from non-EU countries also decreased. Extra-EU FDI flows decreased by 0.37 per cent inward and 1 per cent outward. The stock value for extra-EU FDI investments rose by 0.24 per cent inward and 0.13 per cent outward.

Gaeilge gains full official and working status in EU

The Irish language was placed on equal footing at European level with the EU’s 23 other official languages when it gained full official and working status on 1 January 2022.

Irish has been a treaty language since Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1973, meaning that only EU treaties were translated into Irish. The language became an official and working language of the EU in 2007 at Ireland’s request, but under a derogation granted by the European Council, not all documents were translated into Irish. The Council was asked by Ireland in 2015 to gradually phase out this derogation by 1 January 2022, a target that has now been met.

Once this target had been agreed to, the EU undertook preparations to ensure that all EU institutions had sufficient capacity to meet demand for translation. A European Commission report issued in June 2021 found that capacity needs had been met and that despite the fact that “cuts have been made to the staffing levels of all language teams necessitating a review of resources and adjustments to the mix of in-house staff, outsourcing and language technology resources” since 2015, and that the rate of recruitment slowed in most institutions due to Covid-19, “the number of in-house Irish-language staff has risen from 58 in 2016 to 138 in April 2021”. However, the report does note that while in-house capacity has increased, a high share of the staff in question is temporary; 56 per cent across all EU institutions, 60 per cent in the Commission’s translation service and 100 per cent of those in the European Court of Justice. Two million pages are translated by the EU every year, at a cost of €349 million, 0.2 per cent of the EU budget.

The development has led to reports of jobs with Irish language requirements being advertised the length and breadth of Europe, with technical support companies in Greece, mortgage specialists in the Hague and of course officialdom in Brussels and Luxembourg seeking Gaeilgeoirí.

The honour of submitting the first amendment to EU legislation as Gaeilge fell to Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly, who submitted an amendment to the International Trade Committee’s opinion on a foreign affairs report on the defence of multilateralism, making him the first Irish MEP to propose an amendment in his native language.

“Ba mhór an onóir dom an chéad leasú as Gaeilge a mholadh i bParliamint na hEorpa. Is ócáid stairiúil é seo ó thaobh na Gaeilge de,” Kelly said upon submitting his amendment.

Gas and nuclear projects could be labelled green from 2023 onward

New rules proposed by the European Commission would classify investments in some gas and nuclear plants as sustainable from January 2023 onwards. Opinion within the European Union is split, and some legislators have already announced their intention to stop the adoption of the rules.

Under the new rules for investors designed to raise private capital to meet EU climate targets, gas power plants would be labelled as green projects on the condition that they emit less than 270g of CO2 equivalent per kWh or emit less than 550kg CO2eq per kW annually over 20 years. This would mean that gas plants could run with relatively high emission levels in the present and immediate future as long as they switch to low carbon gas or reduce their emissions later in the 20-year period. Although there had been a requirement in a previous draft of the rules for gas plants to change to low-carbon gases by 2026, this was revised to 2035 in the final publication in February 2022.

New nuclear plants will have to receive construction permits before 2045 in order to receive a green investment label under the new rules. The plants will also have to be located in a country with plans and sufficient funds to safely dispose of the radioactive waste produced by the plants by 2050.

“We're setting out how gas and nuclear could make a contribution in the difficult transition to climate neutrality,” European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union and former Fine Gael MEP Mairéad McGuinness said. “We're putting in place strict conditions for their inclusion in the taxonomy.” EU member states and the European Parliament now have until June 2022 to debate the rules. If a super-majority of 20 out of 27 member sates was reached, the rules would be blocked from adoption.

The German Alliance 90/The Greens MEP Michael Bloss was among those signalling his intention to fight the proposed rules, with an estimated 250 Parliament votes against already secured and an aim of getting to 353 before the vote takes place. The Austrian Government has repeatedly threatened to legally challenge a green label for nuclear power, while Denmark and Ireland have argued that labelling gas as green would undermine the EU’s fight against climate change. States such as Poland and Bulgaria have argued that gas investment should be encouraged in order to phase out the coal on which they are so dependant.

Should the rules be approved, they will be operational from January 2023, with investors having to disclose what share of their investments comply with the rules from then on.