The BRP has expressed its recognition of the European Commission’s efforts in promoting integration and dynamism within the Single Market through its recently presented strategy.
The strategy, unveiled on May 21, is aligned with crucial principles such as reducing bureaucracy, harmonizing regulation, and deepening market integration, which are deemed essential for Europe’s future prosperity. The BRP emphasized the importance of making urgent and measurable progress in simplifying and harmonizing bureaucratic, regulatory, and licensing processes.
However, the BRP voiced concerns over several issues.
Despite providing a solid and widely accepted diagnosis, the strategy is criticized for lacking a clear, actionable, and urgent implementation roadmap, risking becoming a technocratic exercise with limited immediate impact.
The BRP argues that the outlined approach, which includes nine pillars and numerous sub-priorities, lacks the necessary simplicity and focus to drive significant change.
There is a particular concern about the absence of a sense of urgency. The reports that formed the basis for this strategy have been available for nearly a year, yet many initial steps proposed involve scheduling meetings or exploring initiatives rather than taking decisive action.
This slow pace is deeply concerning, given the global context in which Europe operates, states the BRP in the letter.
The BRP argued that the EU must move beyond intentions and take concrete actions to implement simplification and achieve harmonization goals, along with a strong commitment to eliminate national ‘add-ons’ that fragment the single market. The organization acknowledges that the challenge is considerable but absolutely necessary.
Although the strategy rightly emphasizes the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it should also address the importance of promoting business growth, an area that has not received sufficient attention from policymakers.
The BRP also stated that the focus on services overlooks the vital role of the industrial sector, which significantly contributes to Europe’s economic robustness and lacks measures to reform competition policy.
There is also a noted absence of a tangible agenda to advance the Capital Markets and Savings Union, which is crucial since, without it, Europe will struggle to generate the scale and resilience its economy requires.
The BRP calls on the European Commission for a simplified and focused action plan that prioritizes immediate implementation over extensive conceptual frameworks. They urge the acceleration of timelines, balancing support for SMEs with specific initiatives to promote the growth of large companies, reestablishing the industrial sector as a central pillar of the strategy, reforming competition policy, and actualizing the Capital Markets and Savings Union.
The BRP expressed concern that the decision-making and implementation pace outlined in this strategy starkly contrast with the swift and decisive actions taken by the current U.S. administration.
While agreeing on the need to accelerate decision-making, the BRP stressed the importance of maintaining consistency and credibility, avoiding the pitfalls of abrupt directional changes as seen in some recent U.S. policy approaches.
On May 21, the European Commission proposed a strategy for the European Union’s single market, aiming to eliminate the 10 most reported barriers by community businesses by focusing on services, SMEs, and administrative digitalization.
