The European Parliament gave its green light at second reading and without a vote to the Interinstitutional Agreement reached in December 2020 on the regulation on the post-2020 Single Market Programme, late on Tuesday 27 April, following a debate in plenary session.
The previous day, the agreement was endorsed (40 votes in favour, 1 against, 3 abstentions) by the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO). As a reminder, the €4.2 billion programme brings together five European programmes from the 2014-2020 period.
In essence, it aims to improve the functioning of the Internal Market, including the monitoring of the free movement of products. It reinforces the role of the ‘Your Europe’ portal for businesses and citizens to provide information on their rights and obligations. The programme provides for a Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (see EUROPE 12619/23), again to ensure better protection for European consumers.
“Of course, we would have preferred an even more ambitious budget, but we are convinced that synergies with other funds will ensure adequate support in any case”, said Italian rapporteur Brando Benifei (S&D). The Parliament called for a budget of €6 billion.
Mr Benifei recalled the improvements to the text that the Parliament had obtained: the inclusion of business networks and social economy enterprises, the emphasis on product sustainability and consumer protection. He pointed to the challenges of the online Single Market in terms of monitoring.
European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, for his part, thanked the European Parliament for negotiating an increased budget for the programme, notably to improve market surveillance.
The legislative text will be published in the Official Journal at the beginning of May. But its provisions, which are retroactive, apply from 1 January 2021, we are told. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)