Iceland’s EEA performance slammed
ESA headquarters in Brussels.
Iceland is bottom of the class when it comes to honouring its obligation to adopt and comply with common European rules on time, acording to the latest data released by the EFTA (European Free Trade Asoociation) Surveillance Authority, or ESA.
‘Transposition deficit’
The main indicator referred to in the ESA’s twice-yearly assessment (known as the ‘Internal Market Scoreboard’) is the ‘transposition deficit’, i.e. the proportion of directives containing internal market rules and principles that EEA Member States have failed to adopt into national legislation by the given deadline. The target is 1% or less.
Iceland’s transposition deficit is currently 2.8%. This works out as 31 directives that Iceland has not transposed into national legislation on time. The other two EEA nations, Norway and Liechtenstein, also miss the 1% target, but to a lesser extent than Iceland. By comparison, all but one EU Member State have achieved a sub-1% deficit.
Some progress has been made, though. Iceland’s latest figure of 2.8%, referring to the situation in November 2014, is down from 3.1% at the time of the previous assessment.
“Very disappointing”
“We are obviously very disappointed that Iceland government has not managed to implement its own policy in EEA matters [i.e. to bring the deficit under 1% and have no transposition cases pending at the EFTA court by early 2015] more successfully. […] Iceland’s performance in recent years is a cause of great concern,” states Icelandic ESA College Member, Helga Jónsdóttir.
