On Thursday 26 October, the President of the Jacques Delors Institute, Enrico Letta, discussed his report on the future of the single market with members of the European Parliament’s Industry Committee (ITRE).
Discussions focused mainly on the technical and financial issues surrounding the reform of the internal market (see EUROPE 13252/8). With Mr Letta’s report still at the drafting stage, this was above all an opportunity to define the expectations of MEPs.
“The single market was seen as something very internal to Europe, because for 20 years it had been the largest market in the world. Today, things have changed and we have understood that our market must adapt to withstand the challenges coming from outside”, Mr Letta explained in his opening remarks.
In his view, the most important thing now is to know how to guarantee the four major freedoms of the single market (free movement of goods, services, capital and people) while ensuring European security, independence and sovereignty.
For their part, the MEPs present raised the issue of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the inequalities resulting from the disparities in taxation within Member States (see EUROPE 13248/21).
“Our companies are facing increased competition from the rest of the world, as well as technological challenges”, was the analysis from Patrizia Toia (S&D, Italian). The rules of the single market are blamed for the lack of European champions.
This is a problem that Enrico Letta has assured us he has taken into account in his report, but he is wary of its political dimension: “Companies that are important at European level today are not important enough in terms of global competition. And there is also the fear that such a company could cannibalise others, which is why we need to create cross-border projects”.
The former Italian Prime Minister is due to deliver his report in March 2024. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)