John Goossen Ministry of Economic Affairs June 2005 Notifications under Directive 98/34/EC the Dutch experience

Purpose: EC Court of Justice: preventive control of freedom of movement for goods (Securitel-judgement (para. 40)) This brings us back to 1997

Scandal! After Securitel judgment, it became clear that The Netherlands had not notified hundreds of technical regulations for years Problem for the Netherlands Resulting in Securitel-scandal

John Goossen: NB this image from a quality national newspaper shows ex priminister Kok warning Justice Minister Sorgdrager and Economic Affairs Minister Wijers for the col of legislation theyre about to take in the Tour dHollande. (The Securitel scandal took place during the 1997 Tour de France). John Goossen: NB this image from a quality national newspaper shows ex priminister Kok warning Justice Minister Sorgdrager and Economic Affairs Minister Wijers for the col of legislation theyre about to take in the Tour dHollande. (The Securitel scandal took place during the 1997 Tour de France).

John Goossen: NB: This article from a quality national newspaper states Civil servants think Europe is bull-shit and were a country of pretending and Securitel-scandal results from Dutch pigheadedness, ignorance and disinterest. John Goossen: NB: This article from a quality national newspaper states Civil servants think Europe is bull-shit and were a country of pretending and Securitel-scandal results from Dutch pigheadedness, ignorance and disinterest.

Then… Minister Wijers took the blame and all leaves were revoked During the Tour de France, a team of civil servants started screening all legislation for technical regulations During 3 months, some 300 texts were notified

Afterwards… A new interministerial Committee was set up in order to ensure compliance of Dutch regulations with EC law –Prepare and send notifications –Systematically screen Court of Justice judgments and organise follow-up –Implement EC directives –Advise Council of Ministers whenever necessary

Now… 1 contact point employing three people 11 ministerial notification co-ordinators On an annual basis, roughly 20% of notifications in EU15 were Dutch Junior lawyers learn about Securitel- defense

Advantages for industry reacting to other MS notifications! Solution to trade barrier before the problem comes into being No costs for companies, reaction by state administration instead of lenghty court proceedings Efficient because still in draft-phase The alternative is to try and change an implemented law through a Commission infringement procedure or through national courts, and ultimately, through the EC Court of Justice

Procedure (1) 1.Draft technical regulation from other Member State is notified to Brussels authorities 2The Commission forwards the notification to the CDIU agency in Groningen John Goossen: The CDIU agency is responsible for the forwarding of notifications to and from all interested parties. John Goossen: The CDIU agency is responsible for the forwarding of notifications to and from all interested parties.

Procedure (2) 3.The CDIU agency then distributes the notifcation with companies (associations) Ministry of Economic Affairs responsible person Other ministries responsible persons

Procedure (3) 4.Only if reaction from one or more companies (associations) is received: It is transmitted to all these persons and to the European department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs European department: responsible for interministerial co-ordination of * Content * Form (i.e. comments or detailed opinion)

Procedure (4) Economic Affairs sends final reaction to contact point Contact point sends reaction to Commission Commission translates and distributes reaction and monitors follow-up

Some statistics

Number of notifications sent by Member States

Number of Detailed Opinions sent by Member States

Number of Comments sent by Member States

Number of Detailed Opinions received by Member States

Number of Comments received by Member States

Number of Comments + Detailed Opinions sent and received by Member States Reactions sent by Member States Reactions received by Member States

Conclusion The Netherlands notify many technical regulations… … and therefore gets a lot of reactions (comments, detailed opinions) The Netherlands may react more often to notifications by other MS… … but will only do so at the request of industry

John Goossen Ministry of Economic Affairs June 2005 Notifications under Directive 98/34/EC the Dutch experience