On 24th April the European Commission proposed the reduction of paperwork required to obtain recognition of authenticity of public documents in another Member State. Enterprises operating across borders in the EU single market are currently asked to provide a series of documents proving their legal form and the authenticity of documents issued by their country of origin. The same thing happens to citizens. The European Commission’s proposal aims at putting a stop to these complicated procedures by exempting citizens and enterprises from providing expensive “legalized” versions or “certified” translations of official documents. In this way we could save up to 330 million, but also time and hassle. Moreover, standard forms will be available in all official EU languages and could be used under the same conditions as national public documents, thus relieving citizens and enterprises from translation costs.

On 10th and 11th December 2012 the Competitiveness Council – largely dedicated to the Internal Market – was held in Brussels.
Ministers discussed on the status of some of the still pending twelve levers, provided for by the Single Market Act (SMA I).

During a public deliberation, the agreement reached in COREPER on 19th November on the package of the single European patent was finally adopted. It consists of two Regulations and agreements for translation. This endorsement, together with the green light given today, 12th December 2012, by the European Parliament in Strasbourg will bring to a formal adoption by the Council by the end of 2012.