On Friday 17 April, EU Member States were presented with the Commission’s draft ‘One Europe, One Market Roadmap’ on competitiveness and the single market, announced in February by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (see EUROPE 13807/1).
Although this ‘roadmap’ was due to be announced in March, the war in the Middle East disrupted the timetable and the Commission postponed its presentation to the informal summit of the EU27 on 23 and 24 April in Cyprus.
This ‘roadmap’ works like the one that the Commission, the European Parliament and the EU Council presented in 2022 for the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’ (see EUROPE 13016/2). The three institutions will agree on targets for the final adoption of key legislation for the EU’s competitiveness, such as the 'Industrial Accelerator Act', which will have to be adopted by the two co-legislators by the end of 2026.
According to a provisional annex, the institutions are proceeding in this manner for around forty texts upon their arrival.
During this initial exchange of views, the Member States underscored the importance of this ‘roadmap’ for the EU’s competitiveness objectives, while expressing their support for the single market agenda. They will have the opportunity to discuss this again before the Cyprus summit.
With this joint ‘roadmap’, the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the Commission commit themselves “achieving One Europe, One Market by the end of 2027 at the latest through decisive progress across the following five strategic building blocks: (1) simplifying rules; (2) a more integrated Single Market; (3) championing strong trade; (4) reducing energy prices and decarbonising; and (5) driving the digital and AI transformation”, says the draft document.
This ‘roadmap’ is “a political and operational commitment”. The three institutions are committed to respecting these timelines and giving these initiatives the highest political priority.
One of the priorities is to simplify the rules. On this point, the setting of final adoption targets will have to give concrete expression to the institutions’ commitment to “a structural reduction of administrative burdens and regulatory complexity”, by “monitoring regulatory burden throughout the legislative process [...] refraining from introducing new obstacles or barriers, including through gold-plating and unduly divergent national approaches”.
The aim is also to favour regulations over directives wherever possible under the Treaties, and to limit the use of delegated and implementing acts to strictly technical elements.
The institutions also commit “to the timely and effective implementation of trade agreements and to ensuring that trade policy is closely aligned with industrial and competitiveness objectives. This entails deploying all available instruments whenever warranted to address unfair trading practices, global overcapacity, hostile foreign direct investment, distortions in public procurement, and economic coercion”.
The work also concerns energy prices and decarbonisation. “The institutions will make sure that our rules remain fit for purpose in light of evolving affordability, energy security, and climate objectives, and that our electricity market brings benefits to all our Member States”.
It should be noted that the 'European Competitiveness Fund' is not included in this table of objectives (see EUROPE 13843/9), as it is closely linked to the adoption of the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework. However, the European Parliament is expected to deliver its position on Monday 20 April, and the May ‘Competitiveness’ Council could give partial approval to the outlines of the Fund, which, at this stage, would get a budget of €410 billion.
Link to the roadmap: https://aeur.eu/f/lkw (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)