EU Single Market: Council should build on 25 years of success

-  EU ministers should take bold action now -

Since its start 25 years ago, the EU Single Market has been the cornerstone of European integration and a strong growth and employment driver, bringing huge advantages to European companies and citizens. From 1992 to 2006 alone, it provided for a gain of around 233 billion EUR and 2.8 million jobs. Commenting on today’s ministerial debate on the future of the EU Single Market, digitalisation of the economy and next steps on industrial policy, BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer said, “It’s very important that the Council takes bold action to pave the way to swift adoption of those proposals in the services, goods and data packages that reduce regulatory barriers. The proposals on notifications in services, on the proportionality test before regulating a profession, on mutual recognition in the area of goods and on free data flow must be adopted without any delays.”

Businesses also need clear and proportionate rules, ensuring effective market surveillance of the traditional and digital economy, supported by soft measures on enforcement, such as a reinforced SOLVIT network. Not every technological advance needs to be followed by legislation. Europe would be better placed if it rebalanced its risk-averse approach and facilitated digitalisation of the economy. “It's positive that EU Member States have shown clear commitment to implement and further develop an EU industrial policy. Europe needs a real industrial strategy, with a long-term vision backed by clear goals and indicators. We need to scale up support for industry-led projects and key enabling technologies in the 9th EU framework programme for research and innovation”, added Beyrer.