Let an ambitious single market drive our competitiveness

Today, the European Commission published its annual report on the Single Market and Competitiveness. The EPP Group has long called for a stronger focus on the single market as a key driver of European competitiveness.

“The single market is at the core of our competitiveness. However, given the challenges we face between now and 2030, it will not be enough just to maintain the status quo of the European single market. Better enforcement is not enough. Stagnation is a step backwards. We need more ambitious plans to complete the internal market and finally make it easier to work across borders. This includes applying the same rules everywhere to drastically reduce costs for businesses. We need the Capital Markets Union, and we also need a fully integrated telecommunications and electricity market. This is the only way our businesses and consumers can benefit from more competitive prices. In 2020, the Commission calculated that a better functioning single market could generate €713 billion by 2029. This money is urgently needed. The further development of the internal market must be one of the tasks of the next Commission,” says Andreas Schwab MEP, the EPP Group spokesman on the single market.

Christian Ehler MEP, the EPP Group spokesman on industry, research and energy, adds, “Competitiveness is the permanent task for the European Union, and has too often been neglected. Today’s report and Mario Draghi's report on the future of competitiveness set the course for the European Commission to make competitiveness the central theme of the next legislature."

Ehler continues, "The annual report highlights important issues that are currently weakening our single market and, therefore, our competitiveness. Our companies need a functioning internal energy market to be able to compete globally. Increasing reporting obligations for companies remains a bureaucratic nuisance, and 'gold plating' is exactly how EU legislation should not be implemented. Much more can be done, and today's report is, in a way, a to-do list that needs to be worked on without delay."