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On 14 February, the European Commission published the Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report (ASMCR).  The report details the competitive strengths and challenges of Europe's Single Market, tracking yearly developments according to the nine competitiveness drivers identified in the EU's 2023 Long-term competitiveness Communication. Those are the functioning of the Single Market, access to private capital, public investment and infrastructure, research and innovation, energy, circularity, digitalisation, education and skills, and trade and open strategic autonomy. The 2023 Communication established a set of Key Performance Indicators to serve as a dashboard of progress regarding these drivers. While it is too early to establish stable trends, the report notes that 9 KPIs have improved, against 5 that have disimproved; 3 are stable, and 2 do not yet have new data.

The report recalls that the Single Market is one of the world's largest integrated market areas, and that it boosts the EU's economy with a large demand pool, diversified supply sources, opportunities for innovating and scaling up production, strong social rights, and fair working conditions, while serving as a geopolitical lever. It points to the needs to step up enforcement of agreed rules, and to simplify their implementation.

Regarding investment, the report concludes that public investment has recovered from the low levels after the financial crisis, partially thanks to the Recovery and Resilience Facility, while private investment remains high.

Although high energy prices remain a challenge, the report points to important steps taken over the past years in order to update the EU energy policy toolbox and support EU clean tech manufacturing.

The report also notes that the EU is a major trading power accounting for 16% of global exports, and that trade continues to be a source of competitiveness. It also points to the need to defend the level playing field and to protect our economic security.

The report, which recalled the Single Market as the largest integrated market area in the world, also emphasised the need to defend its level playing field and to protect EU’s economic security.

The EC also published the 2022–2023 Single Market Enforcement Taskforce (SMET) report. This annual report highlights the work of the SMET, where the Commission and Member States work together to remove unjustified barriers in the Single Market, such as checks imposed on professionals, barriers to permitting for renewable energy, and administrative burdens for cross border service providers. The SMET refers to the improved functioning of the Internal Market Information System (IMI): focus on competent national authorities and improving their performance in streamline and secure cross-border information exchange among them.

The ASMRC report is available through this link, while the SMET report can be accessed via this link.

Source: European Commission