Debate: Formal sitting – Ceremony on the th Anniversary of the Single Market
Date: MONDAY, 16 JANUARY 2023
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

The single market is one of the greatest achievements of European integration. It’s the backbone of the European economy, and it’s a source of prosperity, of wealth for Europeans being transferred into welfare for the individual citizen. Without it, not possible. For 30 years now, the single market has provided countless benefits to every European. The single market enables us to live, to work, to travel wherever we wish in Europe. It offers consumers protection, safety, greater choice at lower prices. And we can trust the products that we purchase in the Union as they are safe and based on the same standards. And with the work done in this Parliament, this will indeed also be even more true in the future when we purchase things online. Similarly, consumers can be assured that companies operating in the single market, that they respect high labour standards, that they respect the environment. And even more so when we get, hopefully, to an adoption of the platform workers legislation. So it also goes when it’s online. Businesses, they have access to 450, 460 million people. And that, of course, is the basis for opportunities for scaling, for building amazing companies. And the single market has changed the way we trade with one another. It is not the same. We have removed trade barriers. We have removed physical customs controls, which made trading goods both costly and unpredictable. And now we have seen it live with the sad story of Brexit and all the troubles that come back. National rules, well, they prevented companies from trading across border. They are now harmonised. Obstacles for more than 80% of physical industrial products have been removed. And the single market plays a crucial role in our efforts to tackle climate change, ensure clean energy sources and developing digital technologies. The single market makes things happen. And when we celebrate the 30th birthday, I think we can be really proud of what we have achieved together as a result of our European democracy. But as we celebrate and look back, I also think about all these achievements, that we cannot take it for granted. This is not a given. This is not forever. We are instead dealing with a precious asset that needs to be preserved every day for the well-being of the single market, also for the next 30 years. More ambition, more effort is needed to simply pursue further integration of the single market and to take away the barriers that keep creeping in. There are intense discussions about how to improve Europe’s competitiveness and to accelerate the twin transitions. We are looking at our state-aid rules to amend and to simplify where necessary. And it can be a short—term boost, of course, but we do not build competitiveness out of subsidies. This must be a temporary adjustment. We build competitiveness out of a well—functioning, dynamic and innovative market. And also, of course, there can be no successful twin transition without the single market. I continue hearing companies and citizens reporting a number of persistent obstacles, such as the misapplication of rules from one Member State to another, or lengthy or diverse national administrative procedures that hampers cross—border trade, that hampers investment within the single market. And we need to answer to that, because these are the fundamentals of this Union, and we need to take upon these issues obviously very seriously, not by continuing making more rules. This is not a competition of piling up burdensome requirements. We need to do what we do best: provide a stable and manageable regulatory framework, both for our companies, for our administration, a regulatory framework that can travel because it sets a standard; sparkling and experienced. It has been said that you cannot fall in love with the single market. Well, I’m passionate about it. I hope you share it with me.