Dear Chair, Dear Members of the European Parliament,

I am grateful for the invitation to participate in the first meeting of this newly established parliamentary Network on Monitoring the Application of EU Law.

Your decision to focus on the implementation and application of EU law is both timely and essential.
Implementation is the bridge between the promises we make through legislation and the results that matter to people and businesses.
It determines the EUs credibility and effectiveness.

Over the past decades, the European Union has become increasingly ambitious in its policy objectives.
From digitalization and decarbonization to competitiveness and social fairness, our policy goals are wide-ranging and bold.

However, none of these ambitions will be realized if the laws we adopt are not properly implemented. Implementation determines whether the rules we make in Brussels translate into positive change in Berlin, Bucharest, Florence, or Bruges.

The fact that this Network brings together representatives from various parliamentary committees sends an important signal.

It reflects the reality that implementation is not confined to a single policy area.
It cuts across every aspect of EU governance - from the internal market to the green transition, from health and social policy to transport and energy.

Implementation is truly a shared responsibility.
No policy area is exempt from implementation challenges, and success depends on every institution and level of governance taking shared responsibility.

The Commissions 2024-2029 Political Guidelines set a clear priority: implementation must take center stage.
Delivering on our policy objectives means focusing less on proposing new rules and more on making existing ones work - better and faster. 

As the Draghi report highlighted, the complexity and accumulation of rules, and the difficulty in applying them, weigh heavily on Europes competitiveness.
Even well-crafted legislation can fail if it is poorly transposed or not properly applied. 

This is why, in February, the Commission adopted the Communication “A Simpler and Faster Europe”, which outlines our vision for an ambitious implementation and simplification agenda for the entire mandate. 

Our goal is twofold:
to ensure EU policies deliver results,
and to do so in a way that is simpler, faster, and more cost-effective - since simplification is also essential to achieve our economic, social, and environmental objectives. 

We are shifting towards a culture of better delivery.

Implementation must gain center stage in the policy-making process. It must be considered at every step, even before legislation is proposed, and revisited regularly.

This does not only mean examining legal aspects - such as correct transposition and application of EU law - but also assessing how effectively we are advancing toward our policy objectives and targets.

The Commission has already developed a range of tools to support implementation: 

Implementation strategies for major legal acts. 

Technical support and digital tools like the Internal Market Information System. 

Explanatory templates and transposition roadmaps. 

Peer learning and cooperation via expert groups or the Single Market Enforcement Taskforce. 

Our aim now is to build on these good practices and expand their application across more sectors and policy areas.

The role of Member States and stakeholders is key - as their early input helps us identify legal, administrative, and practical barriers before they escalate, and allows us to develop concrete solutions to overcome them.

Our new stakeholder engagement tool, the Implementation Dialogues, helps us assess progress, identify best practices and obstacles, and gather concrete suggestions
- to improve the implementation of EU policies, rules, and funding programs.

Every Commissioner is asked to hold at least two Dialogues per year, and we are already moving quite fast.
In just a few months since introducing this initiative, thirteen Implementation Dialogues have already taken place.

I will personally be carrying out two Dialogues later this week.
One on improving the relevance, simplicity, and cost-efficiency of European official statistics.
And one to learn lessons from the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, in terms of reporting and administrative burden.

The experience has been positive so far, with valuable feedback provided by practitioners and stakeholders.
This included, for example, input regarding high-speed rail, decarbonization in road transport and buildings, permitting for renewable energy projects, or the European Education Area. 

Each dialogue is announced in advance, and the summary of the discussion and the list of participants are published shortly afterwards.

We are also setting up a new yearly reporting cycle to ensure accountability.
Each Commissioner will prepare an annual progress report covering implementation, enforcement, and simplification.

Each report will be sent to the responsible parliamentary committee and Council configuration, who may then invite the responsible Commissioner to present his or her report.

In addition, the Commission will prepare an overview report, coupled with revamped online information and monitoring tools.

This new reporting cycle will provide more opportunities for discussion, and make the information more readily available, user-friendly, and up to date, replacing the previous annual report on the application of EU law.

Dear Members,
Let me now turn to the issue of enforcement.

For people and businesses to truly benefit from our common rules - and for their rights to be effectively protected - EU law must be fully and correctly implemented and applied.

The Commission takes its role as Guardian of the Treaties with utmost seriousness.
Enforcing EU law is, and will remain, one of our top priorities.

Our preferred approach is cooperation with Member States - aiming to ensure compliance from the outset so that people and businesses can benefit earlier.

We continue to make use of the EU Pilot dialogue, an informal but effective problem-solving mechanism with Member States.
It is faster than formal infringement procedures and has a success rate of 70 to 80 percent - a clear example of how early engagement can lead to timely compliance.

Yet we are also well aware that cooperation and prevention are not enough and do not always work. They must be backed by firm and credible enforcement action.

In recent years, the Commission has pursued groundbreaking infringement procedures to safeguard both the integrity of our Single Market and our core values - democracy, justice, equality, and citizenship.

Currently, we are managing approximately 1,500 ongoing infringement procedures.
In 2023 and 2024 alone, the Commission referred 134 cases to the Court of Justice.
In 55 of these cases, we requested that the Court impose financial penalties on the Member States concerned.
This reflects our determination to act decisively where commitments under EU law are not upheld.

And we intend to keep it up - as made clear in our February Communication on implementation and simplification, and in our May Communication on the Single Market Strategy.

In addition, we have taken steps to enhance transparency and public engagement in the enforcement process.

In April, we launched a new, user-friendly website offering up-to-date information on infringement procedures, transposition of directives, and EU Pilot dialogues.
The platform features interactive maps and customizable graphs to make the data easily accessible.

These improvements build on previous upgrades to our public register of infringement cases.
It is now also possible for users to search by topic and connect directly to the European Parliaments Petition Portal
- fostering greater public involvement in monitoring and accountability.

We trust that these transparency measures will also be useful for your own work, particularly as you prepare the own-initiative report on the Commissions monitoring of the application of EU law.

So, to conclude,

Dear Chair, dear Members,

For the Commission, improving the implementation of EU rules and policies has become a top priority.

This implies a shift in how we approach our work and how we allocate our resources.

In recent years, the Union has agreed on transformative legislation at a rapid pace.
Now, the focus must pivot to delivering results.

Citizens and businesses will not judge us by the number of directives and regulations we adopt, but by whether those rules deliver tangible benefits in their daily lives.

That is why I am very pleased to be here today - to hear your views and learn from your perspectives - and hope to count on your support to make this agenda a reality.

Thank you.