Examples of Single Market barriers for businesses - 2022

In the letter addressed to Commissioner Breton on 22 September 2021, BusinessEurope stressed that the success of the revised Industrial Strategy in bringing us closer to the objectives of the green and digital transition significantly relies on the resource efficiency and consumer choice in the Single Market without barriers. Its freedoms are the basis for Europe’s industry and services to develop.

BusinessEurope appreciates the Commission’s analysis provided in the updated Industrial Strategy package of 5 May 2021, re-confirming the remaining Single Market challenges through the angle of 14 industrial eco-systems. We also support efforts in ensuring consistent follow-up to the Long-term Action Plan on Implementation and Enforcement of Single Market Rules (2020) as well as the Annual Single Market Reports, including the last one of 2022. However, tangible actions still need to be defined and taken to address the identified Single Market barriers. BusinessEurope stressed it once more in the letter addressed to Commissioner Breton on 22 September 2021.

To facilitate informed decision-making, tangible examples of the barriers businesses and citizens face in the Single Market are key to understand the remaining bottlenecks. BusinessEurope continues building up the evidence and has updated its series of short papers showcasing practical issues on the ground, which come as package or can also be used individually in policy discussions with different interlocutors, as they illustrate barriers across a wide range of different policy areas: from free movement of goods and services to company law, social policy coordination or transport. The papers supplement the work done by the European Commission in the Single Market Report of 2022, analysing the “root causes” of barriers and are structured around two categories: - barriers emerging under the existing EU legislation, due to its complexity, inconsistencies, uneven interpretation and application by Member States, etc. - barriers emerging in the absence of EU legislation, where an additional harmonised framework might be necessary. The examples linked to this introductory note are not an exhaustive list and would be supplemented by new cases in the future.

Please also check the 2020 series