Brussels, 23/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - MEPs on the European Parliament's internal market committee say that the single market should form a full part of the European Semester process in its own right. In a draft non-legislative report by Sergio Cofferati (S&D, Italy) adopted on Thursday 23 January by 34 votes to 1, the committee recommends for the attention of the Commission that the country-specific economic recommendations take account of progress in integrating into the single market. The MEPs feel that introducing the internal market rules must not be done in a one-size-fits-all manner, so it would make sense to investigate effective ways of doing so.
In its recommendations, the committee says, too, that single market integration work is needed in key sectors like services, energy, transport and the digital economy, and a new, integrated, industrial policy would be useful here. The MEPs regret that much work remains to be done to promote the mobility of workers, and call for greater efforts to remove the obstacles to mobility.
The draft resolution will be adopted by the EP in plenary at the end of February. (MD/transl.fl)