At the Competitiveness Council on Monday 8 December, the EU’s Industry and Internal Market Ministers will examine the persistent obstacles in the single market. The Danish Presidency of the EU Council has prepared a note to frame the discussion in which it calls on the EU27 to take the subject seriously.
“There is an urgent need to show political commitment and results for our businesses”, write the authors of the preparatory note.
This is why the Danish Presidency suggests that the Competitiveness Council focus its work on three existing barriers in the internal market that it considers high-priority. These include barriers to business establishment, fragmented rules on packaging, labelling and waste, and restrictive national regulations on services.
“If we are to meet President [of the European Commission, Editor’s note] von der Leyen’s target of a fully completed single market by 2028, we need to get started now”, insist the authors of the note.
They mention the Commission’s plan to draw up a map of persistent problems in the Member States (‘heatmap’), on which Ministers could build on, and then set annual targets for the removal of one or more of the obstacles on this map.
During the debate on Monday 8 December, the Presidency is expected to question Ministers on the relevance of this idea. It would also like to ask the Member States to share their ideas on how to genuinely gain a deep understanding of the subject and what tools to use.
See the preparatory note: https://aeur.eu/f/juf (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)