How can SOLVIT further enhance compliance with EU law

The SOLVIT network has been given new tasks, regulated by existing or new binding legal acts from the EU. The network has also been linked more closely to the EU Commission's compliance work. There is a need to further develop SOLVIT and in this report we discuss how SOLVIT's legal basis could be changed.

The National Board of Trade Sweden believes that SOLVIT should be based on a legally binding act of EU law. This would make the network’s existence increasingly certain legally and enhance compliance with EU law in the Member States overall. For such a change, political will amongst the Member States is necessary. If Member States cannot agree on such an amendment, we recommend as the second-best option to improve SOLVIT's current recommendation, or alternatively to change it to a Council recommendation.

This report also provides concrete proposals on amendments in the network to strengthen SOLVIT. For any of these recommended amendments, we consider it essential that all national centres are adequately equipped and staffed.

We also believe that a strengthened SOLVIT network would ideally be combined with the introduction of a Single Market Ombudsman (SMO) in all Member States, see our previous report: For a Single Market Ombudsman in every EU State