European Commission evaluates Latvia's performance in implementation of Single Market

RIGA -  The European Commission has published in Annual Single Market Report and has analyzed also Latvia's performance in implementation of the Single Market, LETA learned from the Economics Ministry.

The Economics Commission said that the reports confirm that the Single Market remains a key tool to address Europe's current challenges and highlight the importance of continuously improving its functioning, as well as highlighting the Single Market's impact in terms of increased added value for the EU's economy.

The Commission highly valued operations of Latvia's alternative dispute solving center Solvit that helps in problems of getting national qualifications recognized in another country, recognition of trade and services, freedom to conduct business and other complaints.

Latvia's Solvit center in 2022 received 29 cases from business representatives and individuals and has solved them by 100 percent.

Latvia's performance in relation to internal market information system has also been evaluated well. Latvia has among best results in three indicators, including satisfaction with replies (95 percent), satisfaction with timeliness of the replies (93 percent), and meeting the set deadlines (89 percent). 

The last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic forced Member State authorities to address pressing priorities and affected their performance in transposing EU rules to some degree. In this context, the Commission has taken a number of extraordinary measures aimed at relieving the strain on Member States’ administrative resources. Nevertheless, it has also made clear that the Member States’ legal obligations to transpose EU directives in time remain unchanged. 

Latvia is among five countries with the lowest number of infringement procedures, along with Denmark, Estonia, Finland and Croatia. Nevertheless, transposition of EU norms has decreased by 2 percent compared to 2020.