Single Market Priorities for the 2024-2029 EU term

Considering the impending 2024-2029 legislative period, Eurochambres urges European institutions to prioritise the single market, ensure the proper, systematic enforcement of EU law and foster the digital transformation. Policymakers must also adopt concrete measures to enhance digitalisation, prioritise fair competition and strategic resource allocation, and eliminate all bottlenecks to growth and prosperity in Europe.

For the next legislative period 2024-2029, Eurochambres urges EU policymakers to:

• Build on the outcomes of the Letta report to develop a new horizontal single market strategy with clear actions and targets to deepen the free movement of goods, services, people (including workers) and capital, increase cross-border trade, and reduce fragmentation in Europe.
• Reduce the growing legal complexity, correctly implement and enforce EU legislation, uphold the principle of mutual recognition and mitigate the most pressing single market barriers.
• Boost efforts to reduce administrative burdens on businesses, especially excessive reporting obligations, to preserve the competitiveness of the single market.
• Guarantee a more business-friendly consumer agenda by ensuring fair competition, a stable regulatory environment, and effective policies that enhance consumer purchasing power and protect companies against opportunistic litigation.
• Enhance digital competitiveness through coherent legislative initiatives that foster a consolidated digital single market and promote regulatory sandboxes to encourage innovation and facilitate market experimentation.
• Enhance advisory services for GDPR implementation, and remove Single Market barriers to the introduction of digital products and services
• Strengthen Europe’s competitive edge by enhancing IP protection, investing in applied research, establishing centres of excellence, and streamlining regulatory processes with principles like digital by default and single submissions of information (“once-only principle”).
• Prioritise fair competition by ensuring non-distortive allocation of state aid and increasing financial support to help SMEs digitalise and stay competitive. This is without prejudice to state aid that may be necessary to neutralise systemic handicaps of companies operating from certain territories, such as island states and peripheral regions.
• Ensure effective distribution of financial resources and support SMEs in accessing them.