Czech Business Today
Businesses are still struggling with a phenomenon called gold-plating
On 22nd November the European Commission published the Communication “The Single Market in a changing world”. Businesses expected the document to be a vision of how the single market will evolve. However, it is rather a mere “stock-taking” of the initiatives presented by the current Commission and describes their benefits to consumers and entrepreneurs.
The form of the Communication serves more like a marketing tool for highlighting the benefits of the single market and lacks a perspective for the future. The EU has not yet been able to cope with the inconsistent, vague and sometimes delayed transposition of EU legislation. We are still struggling with a phenomenon called gold-plating. Czech businesses would welcome better tools to showcase EU legislation in the legal framework of individual member states, such as on the central website and in real time.
For the proper functioning of the single market, we need rules that are clear, fair and appropriate for their purpose but The Commission often appears to forget these preconditions. One example is the posting of road transport workers. The proposed rules in the posting of drivers shows that the Commission is omitting these principles. It has to respect them and also act as guardian of treaties against the protectionist tendencies of the Member States.
The businesses welcome the Commission’s comprehensive approach to the single market, including the digital economy, which confirms that the Commission perceives the movement of data as an integral part of the freedoms of the single market. However, entrepreneurs are more sceptical about legislation in the area of personal data protection, specifically the GDPR or Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations that increased substantially the administrative burden and costs.
