EU Single Market: Urgent Call from Six European Business Confederations

As geopolitical instability grows and Europe's competitiveness declines sharply, the single market remains the EU's most important tool for cushioning global economic shocks. While European institutions have committed to strengthening it through the "One Europe, One Market Roadmap to 2028," European Commission data show that single market integration has declined for the second year in a row. European industry is increasingly concerned about the widening gap between ambitious policy commitments and the practical reality of cross-border business.

BusinessEurope, our European representative, therefore organized an excellent high-level debate on the eve of the September Competitiveness Council meeting, together with the Irish Presidency, on how to help the single market reach its full functional potential and how to comprehensively address the cross-border barriers that continue to fragment it.

The discussion was actively attended by Bertrand L'Huillier, Head of Cabinet of European Commission Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné; Peter Burke, Irish Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and Chair of the EU Competitiveness Council; Declan Hughes, Secretary General of the same ministry and Ireland's high-level sherpa for the single market; Markus Beyrer, Director General of BusinessEurope; Ulrike Sapiro, Executive Director of the Jacques Delors Centre at Friends of Europe; and Danny McCoy, Director General of the Irish business association Ibec.

The Confederation of Industry was not only present but also contributed to the preparation of the Single Market Six joint statement (BusinessEurope, EuroCommerce, Eurochambres, DigitalEurope, SMEunited and ERT), which was published in connection with this debate. The joint call from the six European business confederations comes with concrete recommendations for improving the One Europe, One Market strategy — so that, at the end of its mandate, the Commission does not find itself wondering, despite all the promising and well-intentioned declarations made at its outset, why the EU once again has even more bureaucracy than before.

Joint business statement on the One Europe, One Market roadmap >