Announcement by Minister for Trade and Commerce, Mr Michael Ahern T.D. on a European Commission initiative (SOLVIT) established to assist citizens and businesses with cross-border problems they are having in the EU
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment today (October 22nd 2004) organised a presentation of the European Commission’s SOLVIT system for solving cross-border problems in the European Union. The presentation, which involved an on line demonstration of how this computer-based system works, was attended by a number of organisations representing citizen and business bodies. The organisations were invited to attend the event by the Minister for Trade and Commerce, Mr Michael Ahern, T.D. The European Commission also attended the demonstration.
SOLVIT is an informal problem-solving network, which was launched by the Commission in July 2002. Organisations representing EU citizens and businesses - or indeed EU citizens and businesses directly - can raise cases with their SOLVIT Centre where they feel they are being denied their Internal Market rights in a Member State other than their own because the authorities there are not applying Internal Market law.
There are SOLVIT Centres in the public administrations of each of the 25 Member States of the EU and in the countries of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway). The Irish SOLVIT Centre is located within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
Where the Irish SOLVIT Centre is satisfied that a case referred to it is one in which EU law is being misapplied, it will raise the problem with its counterpart in the Member State concerned on behalf of the citizen or business affected.
The Member States involved agree to make every possible effort to find a solution within 10 weeks. SOLVIT tries to find practical solutions to problems but if a problem can’t be resolved to the satisfaction of the applicant he or she retains all his or her legal rights.
Minister Ahern described the SOLVIT system as “having great potential for Irish citizens and businesses”. He said that it was “already delivering benefits by resolving problems faced by citizens and businesses through the use of an informal and flexible network”. The Minister thanked the European Commission for their initiative in launching the initiative and for their assistance at the demonstration.
Note for Editors
SOLVIT is an informal problem-solving network launched by the European
Commission in 2002. There are SOLVIT Centres in the public administrations of
each of the 25 EU Member States and in the countries of the European Economic
Area (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein). EU citizens and businesses can contact their
local SOLVIT Centre with any cross-border problems they are experiencing, where
they believe they are being denied their Internal Market rights in a Member State
other than their own because the authorities there are misapplying Internal Market
law.
Where the Irish SOLVIT Centre is satisfied that a case referred to it is one in which
EU law is being misapplied, it will raise the problem with its counterpart in the
Member State concerned on behalf of the citizen or business affected. By means of
an “electronic handshake” the SOLVIT Centres in the Member States involved agree
to make every possible effort to find a solution within 10 weeks.
Examples of cases successfully resolved, including a case raised with the
Irish SOLVIT Centre, are available on www.europa.eu.int/solvit.
Citizen and business organizations can register with SOLVIT as Associated Bodies.
This allows them to register possible cases electronically with their own SOLVIT
Centre (referred to as the “Home SOLVIT Centre”). If the latter is satisfied that the
case is one where EU law is being misapplied it raises the problem with the SOLVIT
Centre of the Member State concerned (“the Lead SOLVIT Centre”). The Associated
Body can keep track of the case through the system.
As SOLVIT represents an informal approach to problem-solving, the system is not used in situations where:
- legal proceedings are underway,
- the problem relates to a legal obstacle, e.g. where the problem concerns an obstacle that results from a legal provision of national law. In this situation, it is unlikely that an informal system such as SOLVIT will be able to provide redress,
- where deadlines under national law need to be respected, or
- where the problem is a business-to-business or business-to-consumer one.
SOLVIT constitutes an alternative dispute resolution mechanism. Applicants do not have to accept proposed solutions as they are non-binding. The applicant retains all their legal rights, including the possibility of informing the Commission that they are not satisfied with the proposed solution or lack of a solution.
The organizations that attended the demonstration have been invited to register as
Associated Bodies, where they had not already done so. The Department expects
other organizations to register as SOLVIT establishes itself in the coming years.
The Irish SOLVIT Centre can be contacted at the following address:
Irish SOLVIT Centre,
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment,
Earlsfort Centre,
Lower Hatch Street,
Dublin 2.
Mr Michael Clarke, Tel: (01) 6312528
Mr Sean Smith, Tel: (01) 6312647
Ms Karen Kerrigan, Tel: (01) 6312744
Fax: (01) 6312562
Email: internalmarket@entemp.ie
Information on SOLVIT can be found on the Department’s website: www.djei.ie, on the websites of other Government Departments and on the SOLVIT website: http://europa.eu.int/solvit/
Free information and legal advice on problems concerning Internal Market law can
be accessed through the website of the Citizens Signpost Service
http://europa.eu.int/citizensrights or through the freephone number
00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11.
ENDS/TC119
Last modified: 22/10/2004
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