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Relaunching the Single Market: EUC Report

I shall not detain your Lordships for long but I want to emphasise one point made by the noble Baroness, Lady O’Cathain, which is that infraction proceedings in the European Union should proceed at a much faster pace than they do at present. We are members of the EU and, generally speaking, it is recognised that we are probably among the foremost in transposing EU legislation into our own law. However, there are many people who do not play by the rules. We heard yesterday of one country that was seeking to divert the money that the EU had paid it for one thing to another. This is the sort of thing that causes great impatience and of course provides a lot of opportunities for those who are against the EU to say that the proceedings are not properly or fairly conducted. I just expressed the view that, had we been more earnest within the EU in enforcing the rules relating to banking, the problems that have arisen in some countries would probably have been avoided. Therefore, I want to make the point that infraction proceedings must be speeded up because they are most important in making sure that the EU is fair. We are well down the road with things such as advertising contracts in EU journals but, if other people are not playing by the same rules, you can be scrupulously fair on the one hand and sometimes face a chaotic situation on the other. Therefore, my message to the Minister is very simple: I want to see something done to improve the infraction proceedings against those who choose not to implement EU law.