Debate: th Anniversary of the Single Market
Date: MONDAY, 16 JANUARY 2023
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

The single market is one of our great success stories. It shows what our democracy can achieve when we work together. Beyond the clear economic dimension, as we spoke of earlier, the single market also gives the European Union global scale. As citizens, the single market enables us to live, work, travel wherever we want in Europe. As consumers, we are protected by a common set of rules, and we have a greater choice of products at lower prices. It allows us to shop online across Europe, to make electronic payments in euros and for roaming across the Union. At the same time, the single market significantly expands the horizon and the scope of opportunities for European businesses. It brings higher legal certainty, greater access to markets, more economies of scale and entire cross—border value chains. In addition, thanks to the single market, European businesses can bid for public procurement contracts anywhere in Europe, and this makes doing business easier and cheaper, creating jobs and creating growth everywhere. This does not mean that the single market is complete or that the achievements just mentioned can be taken for granted. As the COVID pandemic had shown us, when Member States act individually by closing their borders or introducing intra—EU export bans on medical equipment, on grain, on raw materials, well then the whole function of the single market is jeopardised. We saw clear examples of that at the beginning of the pandemic, such as shortages of essential products, huge traffic jams at the frontiers preventing the free movement of essential workers. And recent crises have also triggered wider awareness of the need to address Europe’s strategic dependencies on third countries and enhance Europe’s independency. And this is in particular the case for sectors and technologies that are based on raw materials, or microprocessors, where Europe is particularly dependent on imports from other countries. Finally, companies and citizens continue to report a number of persisting obstacles, such as misapplication of rules, lengthy or diverse national administrative procedures that really hamper all that they rely on: free cross—border trade and investment in the single market, as well as citizens’ ability to provide services across border. However, as said, the single market is not complete. Its achievement cannot be taken for granted and it requires work and effort to preserve it, to make it future-proof. Every day. First, we must reflect on the single market, how it can further support the acceleration of the green and digital transition. And we also need to ensure that the rules agreed collectively are also applied collectively in every Member State. A key initiative in this regard is the single market enforcement task force, which is working to prevent and to remove obstacles. In addition, we need to deepen the single market and consider which areas may benefit from stronger cooperation. For example, the area of services where we are still lagging behind. And we need to put the small and medium—sized businesses to the centre of our attention. After having suffered the consequences of the pandemic, they are now challenged by soaring energy prices and lack of skilled employees. Finally, we need to strengthen the single market force of projection and think of the single market in its global perspective. The single market is a base, it’s a hub, it’s a protection in a challenging global environment. It’s our tool to uphold our values. For instance, when it comes to principles of privacy, of transparency, as well as our high green and environmental protection objectives and of course, our social standards. I’m looking very much forward for this debate. That will be the starting point of the next 30 years of the single market.