§ Sir Richard BodyTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many EC directives for the single market have been agreed at meetings of the Council of Ministers that he has attended; how many of these directives have been given legislative effect in the United Kingdom; and how many have been put into legislative effect by all member states.
§ Mr. SainsburyFollowing the Internal Market Council on 18 June some 202 of the 282 measures in the Commission's single market programme have been adopted, agreed in principle, or had common positions agreed for submission to the European Parliament.
The Commission presented to the 18 June Council its sixth annual progress report concerning the completion of the single market. This reaffirmed the United Kingdom's excellent record on implementation. Of the 126 individual provisions which are required to have entered into force by the end of May the report recorded the United Kingdom as still needing to implement only 20. This was bettered only by Denmark (12 not implemented) and France (18).
Although only 33 directives have been implemented in all member states, the Commission report noted an improvement in the overall level of implementation. This has increased from 69 per cent. in December 1990 to more than 73 per cent. in May 1991.