A few days after reaching a provisional agreement in trilogue (see EUROPE 13341/10), Andreas Schwab, the rapporteur on the text of the Single Market Emergency Instrument (‘SMEI’), presented the conclusions of the negotiations to Parliament's Internal Market Committee on Tuesday 13 February.
The German MEP expressed his overall disappointment at the results achieved, regretting the lack of flexibility on the part of the EU Council and the concessions granted by Parliament.
“We have not been able to fulfil our ambitions with regard to essential goods and services and strategic reserves”, he lamented. “The stress tests may well be carried out, but on a voluntary basis. We haven’t been able to go any further on this subject, without really knowing why”.
He nevertheless welcomed the progress made on banning restrictions on the movement of citizens, and on the need for Member States to notify the Commission in the event of restrictive measures being introduced.
“Given that the SMEI (renamed ‘IMERA’ for ‘Internal Market Emergency and Resilience Act’) now creates a basic framework for the procedures to be put in place for the single market in the event of crises, we must not give up hope of being able to move forward. There is still a lot of work to be done later”, he concluded. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)