The European Single Market turns 30 years old

This year the EU is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its single market — one of the most important achievements of European integration and one of its main driving forces. The European single market, which was established on January 1, 1993, made possible the free movement of goods, services , people and capital across the EU, making life easier for citizens and opening up new opportunities for businesses.

In 30 years the single market has led to unprecedented market integration between member states’ economies, acting as a driving force for growth and competitiveness and underpinning Europe’s economic and political power globally. Its role was also key in accelerating the economic development of the new member states that joined the EU, removing barriers to entry and stimulating growth.

More recently, the single market has been instrumental in helping Europe deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Maintaining and strengthening the integrity of the single market will remain crucial to enable Europe to respond to new challenges in a coordinated way and to continue to support the competitiveness of European economies.

Thanks to the single market, the EU has managed to improve the lives of all Europeans in the following ways, among others:

Accelerating the transition to a greener and more digital economy: the European Green Deal is the EU’s development strategy. Building on the EU’s proposals for adaptation to the 55% target and for the Digital Decade, the EU is establishing a regulatory framework for supporting Europe’s green and digital transition. The industrial strategy accompanies EU industry in these transitions. The single market also helps ensure the continued availability of key inputs for our businesses, including critical raw materials and advanced technologies such as semiconductors.

Ensuring high safety standards and pioneering global technological standards: EU legislation offers consumers the certainty that all products in the single market are safe and based on high standards of environmental protection, labour, personal data protection and human rights. These rules and standards are often adopted around the world, which gives European businesses a competitive advantage and boosts Europe’s position on the world stage, while encouraging a race to the top in terms of standards. Today the EU sets standards worldwide.

Addressing recent crises with unprecedented speed and decisiveness: the response to recent crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the current energy crisis, is based on a common and coordinated European approach. During the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping internal borders open and ensuring the smooth functioning of the single market allowed vaccines, medical equipment and other critical materials to reach those in need. Today Europe’s response to the energy crisis is based on the REPowerEU plan, which builds on the power of the single market to jointly supply, at EU level, more diversified energy sources and to significantly accelerate the development and deployment of clean and renewable energy sources . This has already had the effect of reducing the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

To ensure that the single market remains a common good that works for everyone in the EU, the Commission is constantly working to develop the single market in new areas and ensure that the rules already in place work in practice. To this end, the Commission works closely with the public authorities of the Member States who share with it the responsibility for the effective enforcement of single market rules.

In December 2022, at the launch of the series of events to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Single Market, the Commission presented an in-depth paper on the state of the Single Market 30 years after its creation and on its role as a driver of resilience of the EU. During 2023 there will be numerous debates, exhibitions and campaigns co-organised with stakeholders across the EU to promote the successes of the Single Market and engage citizens in the debate on its future. In this context, the Commission will issue a communication highlighting the major achievements and benefits of the single market, while identifying implementation gaps and future priorities, so that the single market continues to play a key role.

Record

The single market was established on 1 January 1993. It was followed by the signing of the Maastricht Treaty on 7 February 1992. Initially, the single market consisted of 12 EU countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Greece, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Italy , Netherlands, Luxembourg and Portugal. Today, the single market includes 27 member states, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, while Switzerland has partial access.

Athena Papakosta

Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.