Joint business statement on the European Commission ‘Strategy for making the Single Market simple, seamless and strong’

The future of European integration: Need for a long-term vision for the Single Market

For the first time in a long while, integration within the Single Market has taken a step backwards: recent data shows a decline in integration in both the free movement of goods (decline from 26.0% in 2022 to 23.8% in 2023) and the free movement of services (from 7.8% in 2022 to 7.6% in 2023). This trend underscores the urgent need for the breakthrough political action to preserve the integrity and future resilience of the Single Market, called for in the reports of Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi.

In a joint business statement published in February 2025, European business organisations called on the European Commission to develop a comprehensive Single Market strategy that focuses on removing concrete barriers for businesses with clear roadmaps and timeframes. The business community’s demands for further deepening the Single Market across all critical areas remain valid today, including energy, environment, digital, retail, banking and capital, health and defence. All of them are critical to improving the competitiveness of European companies and, therefore, require specific treatment, taking into account the characteristics of each sector.

As things stand today, we welcome the European Commission’s Single Market strategy published on 21 May 2025 as considerable effort to reinvigorate the Single Market and address challenges of fragmentation and governance in the short run.