During a videoconference with Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) MEPs on Monday 28 September, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton stressed the need to consider a specific decision-making mechanism in times of crisis to increase speed and efficiency.
“The question is now very relevant, you really have to have it top of mind these days. (...) Faced with a new crisis, could we do better, because we will obviously have to do better?” asked the Commissioner, referring to the general chaos of Member States at the beginning of the pandemic. This politician and former CEO of several large companies believes there is a need to reflect on structures and decision-making processes.
Explaining that at the beginning of the crisis, he had to slowly lift, “through dialogue”, some 30 restrictive measures that ran counter to the fundamental freedoms of the internal market, the Commissioner hammered home that he would not hesitate in the future to use all the instruments at his disposal, i.e., without naming it, the infringement procedure. Responding to MEPs, the Commissioner cited the case of Hungary, which recently closed its borders to curb the pandemic. This is an isolated initiative, which the Commissioner hopes to resolve above all through dialogue.
Recently, the Member States adopted conclusions in which they ask the European Commission to present a strategic report by 15 January 2021 (see EUROPE 12563/13). Objective: to take stock of the Action Plan on the implementation and enforcement of the Single Market, taking into account the role of the ‘SMET’ Working Group on the application of Single Market rules (see EUROPE 12566/10), but also whether or not regulatory measures should be adopted.
Update of the industrial strategy
The Commissioner gave some, albeit cryptic, clues about the update of the industrial strategy announced by the President of the European Commission (see EUROPE 12561/8). “The borders between products and services are becoming increasingly blurred, in the same way as the border between so-called industrial countries and countries that are more dependent on services, this will be the reason for updating our industrial strategy”.
European state of emergency
At the end of the summer, the Commissioner published a series of opinion pieces in the French press in which he explored the idea of a “European state of emergency”. He imagined that a state of emergency could be declared in order to allow, on a temporary basis, qualified majority decision-making in all areas, involving the European Parliament. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)