EU Parliament report lauds new member states

Hungary, Lithuania and Poland are the star newcomers in adopting European Union legislation but the Czech Republic is bottom of the new class.

A European Parliament report showed all 10 mostly ex-communist countries which joined the bloc last May have done better than critics forecast in implementing the 1,579 directives related to the EU single market.

"The new member states are doing well in transposing EU legislation," said Malgorzata Handzlik, the Polish author of the report marking the first anniversary of the Union's biggest enlargement.

Star performer Lithuania has already implemented all but one per cent of EU laws, compared with an average of 3.6 per cent among all 25 member states, while the Czech Republic has yet to transpose 9.6 per cent of EU legislation into national law.

The newcomers are the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Malta, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The blackest spot was EU car registration rules, which the majority of newcomers have failed to adopt, the report said.

It said the Czech Republic and Latvia needed to improve laws on recognition of professional qualifications.

Latvia has failed to implement a law giving nationals of other EU states the right to take part in municipal elections, while Prague has yet to implement EU legislation on equal treatment of men and women at work.

Estonia and Slovenia need to strengthen their banking supervision authorities while Latvia and Slovenia "are lagging behind considerably" in transposing their insurance sector laws.

The Czech Republic and Estonia are not yet protecting personal data as required by the EU.

The executive European Commission can spur member states by using the stick of court action. But the European Court of Justice can take up to two years to reach a verdict. The EU requires member states to implement its laws within two years of adoption, but many do not meet this deadline.

This prevents companies and citizens benefiting from harmonised EU rules.