Absolute majority of MEPs endorsed the Solvit Dossier

Absolute majority of the Members of the European Parliament endorsed the Solvit dossier for which MEP Claudette Abela Baldacchino was spokesperson for the S&D Group.

Immediately after the vote, Abela Baldacchino stated that “citizens and businesses deserve the right tools to maintain trust in the internal market.”

Taking the floor during the debate, Abela Baldacchino, who was spokesperson in both IMCO and Empl Committees stated “we need to raise awareness, at all levels, amongst citizens and businesses to ensure that they know their rights; that they are aware of the possibilities of SOLVIT, and guided in the right direction when they encounter problems.”

Claudette Abela Baldacchino continued to say “I am particularly glad also that we managed in this report to stress the need to make the SOLVIT centres accessible for all, also for elderly and persons with a disability. In a Social Europe, we cannot miss out on the opportunity to make these portals, which are for a great part still under construction, accessible to everyone.”

She said also that she believed it is important that everyone involved keeps engaging in the improvement of the SOLVIT tool, through efficient cooperation and awareness of the needs of citizens and businesses for which the internal market should be beneficial. Set up in 2002, SOLVIT is an online network for informal settling of cross-border disputes over the incorrect and inaccurate application of the single market rules arising between citizens or businesses and national administrations across the EU, to the extent that such disputes are not subject to legal proceedings at national or EU level.

The network brings together national SOLVIT centres, based in Member States’ national administration, and the Commission. SOLVIT is an online dispute resolution mechanism and, at the same time, a cooperation network between national administrations, which contributes to improving the implementation capacity of EU law at national level and hence fosters the correct application of EU law.

During the network’s first ten years of existence, between 2003 and 2013, the volume of cases submitted to SOLVIT rose continuously. Beginning with less than 200 complaints in its first year, SOLVIT currently receives around 3,000 complaints annually, out of which around 1,300 fall within its mandate and are actually handled by the network.

 According to the Single Market Scoreboard, the total number of cases, in the period between March 2012 and February 2013, amounted to 3,023 and 1,238 cases respectively. 89% of the cases handled have been resolved or clarified within the deadline of 10 weeks, while 2% (19 cases) were rejected and around 10% remained unresolved.