It’s time to build on our biggest asset – the EU Single Market

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) organised a high-level debate on European competitiveness and the future of the Internal Market. BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer representing the European business community at this event, underlined that today the EU’s Single Market accounts for 56 million European jobs and plays a key role in bringing the economic power needed to be globally competitive and achieve the twin transition. If all barriers to the free movement of goods and services were abolished, the Single Market could unleash €713 billion by the end of 2029. This is a tax-payer neutral amount that could help investment in the green and digital technologies. However, over the last 5 years, the integration of the Single Market has stagnated, and even risks coming to a stop. European businesses are concerned that the mass of new EU legislation over the current political cycle was largely ineffective in removing existing Single Market barriers to cross-border free trade. Beyrer added: “Right now, Europe is at a crossroads. Our European way of doing things is being put into question. This is exactly the time when we need to build on our biggest asset. This is why BusinessEurope pushes for a fully-fledged Single Market programme on the removal of regulatory barriers in product, service, network industry, financial and capital markets, and on the reduction of bureaucracy.”