Debate: Formal sitting – Ceremony on the th Anniversary of the Single Market
Date: MONDAY, 16 JANUARY 2023
Speaker: Anna Cavazzini
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Netherlands
Language: EN

Dear President, dear Minister, dear Vice-President, dear colleagues, 30 years of the EU’s single market means 30 years of living, working and studying in other EU Member States. It means more prosperity and opportunities for our businesses. Market integration has led to European integration, to citizens growing closer together. And I’m from a generation that can’t remember how it was before. And now I could talk to you about how much GDP growth the internal market has brought us, about trade flows, about increasing competitiveness. And all of this is certainly very, very important. But I rather want to talk about what the single market means to us as citizens.  I know some people are convinced that you cannot fall in love with the internal market, and Jacques Delors certainly was one of them. But I have to say, similarly to Margrethe, I get a lot of excited feedback from citizens when I talk to them about our current internal market legislation. With the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, we created democratic rules for the online world. As the first continent worldwide with legislation on circular economy and the right to repair, we are making sustainability the norm in our market. And then – this is really a project to fall in love with – there will be very soon only one common charger in the EU. Can you have a nicer symbol of the EU internal market?  These examples show that in the past 30 years, the task of creating a common market has evolved from completing the market with its four freedoms – goods, services, capital and people – to using it more and more to achieve our common political goals: strategic autonomy; a new and unique European model of the digital world; high consumer standards; and, very importantly, the protection of our planet and the climate. And this is also the story that we have to tell to citizens today. Indeed, no one will fall in love with the abstract idea of economic integration. But citizens want high consumer protection standards, a healthy economy, environmental protection. And I think the single market can deliver if we do it in the right way.  So if we look back, was everything shiny and rosy in the last years? Certainly not. Several crises have marked the past 30 years and we are right in the middle of one of them. But with each crisis, the single market has evolved. It has proven to be part of the solution. Let me look at that a bit and see what we can learn. I think, to get support from our EU citizens, the single market must protect them. Huge protests all over Europe were the consequence of people believing that the Commission went too far in the market integration with the Services Directive. This Parliament had changed the proposal back in 2006 – made it more balanced. We in this House have successfully fought for a stronger social dimension of the single market in the past years. And I believe we must continue to do so. Brexit, with the UK not only leaving the EU but also the single market, was probably one of the biggest crises for all of us. And, sadly enough, the current performance of the UK economy and the mounting challenges that businesses and citizens face make the rest of the EU even more aware of the benefits of the single market and how dangerous it is to throw everything overboard light-heartedly. During the pandemic, supply chains got heavily disrupted, adding to citizens’ and businesses’ hardships. EU internal borders closed up. We managed to get on our feet again, thanks to the single market, its benefits, its principles protecting European solidarity, common procurement of vaccines, authorising trucks to cross borders to prevent shortages. A common approach to rebuilding the economy. It became obvious once more: we are stronger together.  And, dear colleagues, allow me a last point. When it comes to the challenges we are facing right now, I think once again focusing on European cooperation and leveraging the strength of the single market would bring us forward. The climate crisis is looming. The past seven years have been the hottest in the recorded history. And, on the other hand, European companies are not only facing high energy prices, but also fierce global competition to lead the future’s global green economy.  Let me be very clear. We cannot prioritise competitiveness over solving the climate crisis. Solutions have to go hand in hand. We need to massively accelerate climate measures and to finance the green transition, which in turn will help European companies. But all of this cannot be at the expense of the single market, with Member States outspending each other. Investing in the single market is the solution, enabling it to be a life jacket for all of us.