Internal Market Unit

Work of the Internal Market Unit

Areas of work:

Internal Market News

14 August 2012 the European Union launched its Single Market website to focus attention on events planned in Single Market week in October 2012, celebrating 20 years of the Single Market.

• March 2012 Information about developments and the performance of the Single Market in 2011 can be found by accessing the following link to the European Commission’s website where the ‘Making the Single Market deliver, annual governance check up 2011’is available.

.The Internal Market Directorate General in Brussels publishes a free magazine (Single Market News) with up to date Internal Market news, it can be accessed at: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/smn/index_en.htm

The work of the Internal Market Unit covers:

Directive on Services

The Internal Market Unit represents Ireland’s position on the Directive on Services in the Internal Market.

SOLVIT

Please Note: Travel

The Irish SOLVIT Centre regularly gets requests for urgent help in relation to travel issues (Visas) over the Summer holidays and other holiday periods. Non-EU family members of EU citizens should make enquiries with the Embassy of the Member State they intend visiting in good time before finalising their plans.

Please note, SOLVIT can only act where there has been a misapplication of EU law by a public body and cases can take up to 10 weeks to resolve. Therefore it is often not possible for SOLVIT to assist with such complaints.

The Irish SOLVIT Centre now has its own dedicated website at: http://www.solvitireland.ie

Internal Market Information system (IMI)

IMI is a tool designed to support competent authorities throughout the European Economic Area who are obliged by the mutual assistance provisions of certain internal market legislation to exchange information with their counterparts in other Member States. IMI links competent authorities in national administrations that are involved in managing/implementing free movement in the Internal Market. IMI facilitates the electronic exchange of information between competent authorities in the Member States. Further information about the IMI system can be found at the IMI website - http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/imi-net/

Your Europe Citizens

Your Europe is a European Commission website which provides information to citizens and businesses on their rights in the EU. It provides practical information for citizens looking to live and work in another EU country and for businesses looking to do business in another EU country.

Your Europe is divided into a separate Your Europe Citizens website, and a Your Europe Business website.

The Internal Market Unit acts as national co-ordinator in response to European Commission requests for updates of information on Your Europe relevant to Ireland.

Your Europe Citizens which provides information on your rights and entitlements as an EU citizen can be accessed at the following link.

Your Europe Citizens

Your Europe Advice is a free advice service operated by the European Commission for EU citizens on their rights in the EU. Your Europe Advice can be accessed at the following link.

Your Europe Advice

Further contact points can also be found in the link below on Your Europe Citizens website, for citizens seeking assistance on their EU rights.

Further Contact Points

Your Europe Business

Your Europe Business which provides a practical guide for business on doing business in another EU country can be found by accessing the following link.

Your Europe Business

TAIEX

TAIEX was set up to provide assistance in the field of approximation, application and enforcement of EU legislation to benefit the countries of central and eastern Europe that were candidates for accession to the European Union (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia).

TAIEX provides institution-building support in all areas of EU law with a view to supporting its alignment, application and enforcement in the new Member States, the Candidate Countries, the Western Balkans and the Turkish Cypriot Community in the northern part of Cyprus. TAIEX responds to demand-driven requests for assistance from the Beneficiary Countries, the Commission Services and the Member States.

TAIEX assistance is provided by experts in the public and semi-public sectors from Member States who either visit their contemporaries in the Candidate Country/new Member States or host a visit by officials of the Candidate Country/new Member State to the expert’s Member State. The assistance is provided for periods of not less than two days and not more than two weeks and is provided at the request of the Candidate Countries/new Member States or on the initiative of the TAIEX Office in close co-operation with the services of the Commission.

The Internal Market Unit is the co-ordinator for TAIEX requests relevant for the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

The TAIEX 2005 Activity Report (pdf document, 1.64mb) was released, December 2005. The TAIEX 2004 Activity Report and 2003 Activity Report are also available.

Strawberry Regulation

Council Regulation (EC) No 2679/98 of 7 December 1998 on the functioning of the internal market in relation to the free movement of goods among the Member States establishes an information and monitoring mechanism in order to eliminate the major obstacles to trade which inflict serious losses on individuals, such as the obstacles which were the subject of the so-called "strawberries" Judgment (Commission v. France).

The Regulation should make it possible to apply the principle of the free movement of goods quicker and more efficiently in order to deal with this kind of obstacle, as requested by the Amsterdam European Council of 16 and 17 June 1997.