Von der Leyen's 6 points to complete and strengthen the European single market
The President of the Commission presented in Strasbourg an agenda for adapting the Union to "today's challenges"
During the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented a six-point agenda to modernise and complete the European single market. Among the points of the agenda to adapt the single market to "today's challenges" are digitalisation, sustainability and energy independence.
First point: complete the single market
Firstly, von der Leyen said: 'We must remove the barriers that still persist in our internal market. At the European level, we are tackling this problem with the 'Terrible Ten' proposal (the ten biggest obstacles to the functioning of the EU market, including the complexity of EU rules and the lack of common standards, ed.) and with Eu Inc., a unique set of rules applicable throughout Europe. At the national level, we have to counter overly complex and redundant practices', the so-called gold-plating, the habit of member states to add obligations when transposing EU directives into their own law. "We must simplify considerably the expansion of businesses across Europe. This is the fundamental promise of the Single Market and must be fulfilled'.
Second point: digitisation
Secondly, von der Leyen continued, 'the single market must be digital by design. Technological leadership is a prerequisite for our future success. The good news is that Europe has a good starting point. We have global industrial leaders and a growing ecosystem of start-ups and scale-ups. We have scientific excellence and a highly skilled workforce. What we need now is to create an environment that stimulates demand for European digital solutions here at home'. Therefore, 'we need to identify and implement projects of strategic importance, supported by credible business cases, and we need new technology champions in Europe. We have already taken important first steps in this direction. Three years ago we launched the Chips Act. Since then, it has unlocked more than EUR 32 billion of investment in the semiconductor industry across Europe'. Now, von der Leyen continued, 'we will present the Chips Act 2.0, to strengthen Europe's role in the semiconductor value chain. We will also present the Cloud and Ai Development Act, to support the growth of a robust artificial intelligence ecosystem. And in the summer we will launch the call for the first dedicated AI Gigafactories'.
Third point: sustainability
Furthermore, the Commission President said that 'sustainability must be integrated into market rules. Our climate and circular economy goals require a single market that encourages clean innovation and removes barriers to trade in low-carbon goods and services. That is why, with the Industrial Accelerator Act, we are creating markets for clean products across the EU.
Fourth point: energy independence
"This is the moment of Europe's independence and the single market must help to achieve it. Since the beginning of the pandemic, our companies have faced a long series of interruptions in supply chains. Of course, we must continue to use the size of the single market to conclude new trade agreements,' von der Leyen said. The president will travel to Mexico today to finalise the modernised trade agreement with the Central and North American country. The single market 'should facilitate the coordination of strategic investments and aggregate demand: we are doing this in the energy sector. In a few weeks we will present the action plan for electrification,' he added.
