Bringing down barriers to the single market to create opportunities for all

The EU’s single market gives businesses access to 450 million consumers. It is the first driver of our competitiveness and the second largest global market. But its rules and regulations can be complex and create barriers to entry and growth. In a bid to create a more simple and strong European home market, the European Commission has introduced a new strategy to simplify rules and reduce bureaucracy.  

The new measures will boost growth opportunities for businesses and provide even higher consumer protection for us all. They focus on 

• Dismantling barriers: removing the ten most harmful ones reported by businesses that most hinder the free movement of goods and services.
• Bringing new dynamism to Europe’s service sector, where cross-border trade is stagnating. Proposals include modernising rules in the construction and postal and parcels sectors and freeing regulated business services from unnecessary regulation.
• Supporting SMEs’ development and growth by introducing a new definition of small mid-cap companies (SMCs), extending some of the benefits afforded to SMEs to these SMCs.
• Simplifying existing rules and making digitalisation the norm by allowing companies to submit documents digitally to comply with certain EU legislation.
• Improving joint ownership of the single market with EU countries, which should name a high-level single market representative (“Sherpa”) to oversee the application of EU single market rules and make sure to assess and prevent national measures introducing single market barriers.  

The strategy calls on EU countries to do their part in making the single market the best choice for companies, workers and consumers. It is part of the Commission’s wider goal to cut red tape by 25% overall and 35% for SMEs by the end of 2029. The Commission will continue to work with stakeholders and EU countries to implement these measures and monitor their impact. 

For more information 

Single market strategy 

Factsheet 

A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness 

Press release: a simpler Single Market to make companies choose Europe