On Tuesday 10 March, MEPs once again called on European leaders to tackle the persistent obstacles to the single market and, while continuing the process of legislative simplification, to work towards greater integration of the economies of the EU27.
At a time when the European Council on 19 and 20 March will be returning to the subject of competitiveness, and when Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will be presenting her roadmap for the future One Europe, One Market, the elected representatives successively blamed divergent national practices in terms of state aid and the capital market, as well as problems linked to the recognition of diplomas, the lack of scale in telecommunications and difficulties linked to labour rights, as listed by Portuguese Renew Europe MEP João Cotrim Figueiredo.
“Most Member States are too selfish and don’t understand that choices are not made for the short term”, added this elected representative.
Maltese Socialist Alex Agius Saliba, for his part, pointed to the major handicap of energy prices and all the internal barriers that are pushing up prices by 15% for European consumers.
Greens/EFA MEP Kim van Sparrentak (Dutch) welcomed the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) initiative, which, together with a preference for ‘Made in Europe’ will help to develop the single market.
However, European local content criteria cannot be allowed to benefit countries such as Japan or the United States, she also warned.
French PfE member Virginie Joron, for her part, merely denounced the EU’s ongoing over-regulation.
Stéphane Séjourné, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, confirmed the Commission’s ambition to tackle bottlenecks in the single market.
He cited the inconsistency observed for 82 professions in the construction sector, “regulated in five Member States and not elsewhere”. The Vice-President questioned the justification for these regulations in only five Member States.
Referring to “unprecedented difficulties for European competitiveness”, the European leader reiterated that “there can be no competitiveness without a functioning single market”. “Results are urgently needed” in this area.
He also indicated that the Commission would be tackling two critical issues in particular this year: late payments between businesses and public authorities, and obstacles to the construction of energy transition facilities.
The European Council wants the electronic declaration for posted workers to be adopted before the end of 2026. According to draft conclusions from the European Council dated 9 March, which will be submitted to permanent representatives on 11 March, the European Council should invite the Member States and the EU institutions to “put in place a 28thregime for company law, to help European companies, in particular innovative companies and start-ups, to operate and scale up across the Single Market, on a simple and digital-by-default basis by the end of 2026” as well as “a simple, unified and voluntary eDeclaration system for the cross-border provision of business services”, which should be agreed by co-legislators by June 2026.
Link to the project: https://aeur.eu/f/l3j (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)