On request of the Spanish and Belgian presidencies of the European Councils, former Italian Prime Minister and President of the Institut Jacques Delors, Enrico Letta presented last Thursday, April 18th, his Report on the EU’s biggest economic project launched 32 years ago by Jacques Delors, the so-called Single Market, which through economic integration wanted to intensify also the institutional cooperation of the European Member States, laying down the ground for an ever closer Union.
Letta’s long-awaited Report, to be considered the “Single Market Chapter” of the other upcoming report by former ECB President (and also Italian ex-Prime Minister) Mario Draghi, confirms the impression that many of our member companies have for years: it is still far from being a Single Market.
After many meetings with institutions all over Europe, with stakeholders and of course also with business associations on national and European levels, Mr. Letta tries to take a picture of where we stand, and he formulates proposals for improvement. And since some of our members like M-ETI, BVMW, Digital SME Alliance and we have also added our inputs, we are happy to state that some of our proposals have been taken into account.
The “Once Only” Principle for mutual recognition of certificates, reports and licences from all Member States by all other Member States has been mentioned and underpinned within the Single Digital Gateway. A special Mid-Caps category between SME and Large companies has been proposed, likewise as many proposals for an authentic Digital Single Market in the EU.
Also other proposals like a European Code of Business, in addition to the 27 existing, the important attention paid by Letta to Cross-Border business, Regional cohesion and a Growth Agenda for SME and Mid-Caps go in the right direction to open the Single Market always more to the smaller but crucial companies in Europe.
It is important to note that the European Council discussed these proposals immediately and put important pieces on their agenda, which is already shaping the next EU Commission’s agenda to be nominated after the upcoming European Parliament Elections on June 6-9.
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