28
Apr
2026
Watch
Monitoring the application of European Union law in 2023, 2024 and 2025 (debate)
Madam President, I thank the rapporteurs for their work on this report. I think it is a very healthy exercise that we can have this debate every year. Well, last year we did not have this report, this year we have accumulated it. The work of this Parliament and the Commission, as guardian of the Treaties, is clearly to ensure that what these institutions, together with the Council, adopt is implemented. And it comes as no surprise that infringement cases are increasing every year for the Member States for not implementing precisely what they themselves have approved. So, the question is... Why don't they do it? What interest do they have in blocking regulation? Why has the Spanish Government had to be threatened before the Court of Justice to announce that it will apply the VAT exemption for SMEs and the self-employed? Why has the Spanish Government left hundreds of thousands of self-employed people in absolute unequal conditions, who cannot take advantage of the advantages that millions of self-employed people in Europe can take advantage of? More than a year of blockade has passed and thousands of self-employed are still abandoned by the Government of Spain. I call on the Commission to be quicker and firmer. Infringement files cannot become a limbo accumulating unjustified delays, because complying with EU law is also about making Europe.