SOLVIT is an informal problem-solving network of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

and the

member states of the European Union The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are party to the EU's founding treaties, and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of membership. They have agreed by the treaties to share their o ...

and the EEA. Created in 2002,European Commission
SOLVIT’s Helping Hand in the Single Market: celebrating 20 years
Commission Staff Working Document, published 26 September 2022, accessed 15 March 2023 it assists citizens and businesses to ascertain their EU rights where a dispute has arisen between a citizen or a company and a public authority of a

member state of the European Union The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of Lists of member states of the European Union, 27 member states that are party to the EU's Treaties of the European Union, founding treaties, and thereby subject to the privileges and ...

and the EEA other than their country of origin. There is a SOLVIT centre in every member state (as well as in the EEA member states

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, and

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

). SOLVIT is free of charge, and mainly an online service. Whenever a problem occurs, the SOLVIT centres of the two countries concerned (the complainant's country of origin and the country where the problem occurred) will try to reach a solution within ten weeks. On 2 May 2017 the European Commission announced a package of measures intended to enhance the functioning of the

Single Market A single market, sometimes called common market or internal market, is a type of trade bloc in which most trade barriers have been removed (for goods) with some common policies on product regulation, and freedom of movement of the factors of pr ...

within the EU, which included a proposed action plan on reinforcing SOLVIT. The Commission published a report in September 2022 celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the network. The report noted that 28,600 cases had been addressed during this 20-year period and 85% of these had been resolved. The UK's Single Market Centre, which provided SOLVIT services for UK businesses and consumers, closed in January 2021.UK Government
UK Single Market Centre
accessed 15 March 2023

References

External links

* http://ec.europa.eu/solvit/ {{EU-stub European Commission