The EU's Single Market was created over 25 years ago and has been a cornerstone of the EU's economic development ever since. It is considered one of the EU's greatest achievements and it is at the core of the EU's economic and political integration.

The Single Market has reached a high level of economic integration in what is now the largest combined market place in the world and this has already substantially benefitted the economies of the Member States as well as their cities and regions.

Nevertheless, citizens and entrepreneurs continue to experience barriers that prevent them from fully exploiting the potential of the Single Market and new obstacles are emerging. If remaining barriers were eliminated and existing European laws were applied effectively, the Single Market could still yield substantial additional benefits for the EU economy and for citizens.

The European Commission acknowledges this and has over the years taken a number of initiatives to tackle these barriers as well as improve the implementation and enforcement of the Single Market rules. On 10 March 2020, it published two Communications on the Single Market that continue these ongoing efforts.

The first one is titled Identifying and addressing barriers to the Single Market, and identifies a broad range of obstacles in the Single Market from the perspective of Europe's businesses and consumers. It points to the root causes of such barriers: restrictive and complex national rules, limited administrative capacities, imperfect transposition of EU rules and their inadequate enforcement.

The second one is titled Long term Action Plan for better implementation and enforcement of Single Market rules. This Action Plan is the result of a process that was initiated in March 2019 by the European Council. It contains over 20 measures for better implementation and enforcement of Single Market rules, in close coordination with the Member States.

Both Communications are part of the Commission's policy package to help Europe's industry lead the twin transitions towards climate neutrality and digital leadership. The Industrial Policy package and the SME strategy will be the subject of two separate Opinions of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR).

The aforementioned Single Market Communications will be the subject of a dedicated new CoR Opinion, for which its ECON Commission has appointed Tadeusz Truskolaski (EA/PL), Mayor of Białystok, as rapporteur.

The Opinion is scheduled for adoption at the ECON Commission meeting of 24 June 2020 and at the plenary session of 12/14 October 2020.

​​By means of this written consultation, Mr Truskolaski would like to consult relevant stakeholders and gather their input to explore the following issues:

Questions

1. Do you think the European Commission has identified all relevant barriers to the Single Market and set the right priorities in its 10 March 2020 Single Market Communications? If not, what is missing and why?
   
2. Should the European Commission consider new legislative proposals to tackle Single Market barriers and reinforce the implementation of Single Market rules? If so, what types of initiatives should be envisaged?
3. How can we better protect the Single Market from unfair economic activities by governments and entities from third countries? How can we better protect the Single Market against dumping on the world market?

You are kindly invited to contribute to this consultation by sending your replies to the three questions above, or any additional comment, to econ@cor.europa.eu before 3 p.m. on 20 May 2020.

Please also note that Mr Truskolaski and his team are available for online meetings and exchanges upon request and when appropriate.

Kind regards,

ECON secretariat​