The European business community welcomes the EU institutions’ renewed political
commitment to strengthening the Single Market and simplifying EU legislation. The One
Europe, One Market roadmap sets the right direction, but more is needed, as progress
remains limited: Single Market integration has once again stalled, with intra-EU trade in goods
falling to 22% of GDP in 2024 and services trade remaining at a low of 7.9% of GDP.1
At the same time, despite welcome simplification efforts, including the Omnibus initiatives
and the Action Plan for Regulatory Deep Cleaning, businesses continue to face excessive
regulatory burdens and have yet to see tangible improvements.

A competitive Europe requires a truly integrated Single Market that fully delivers on the free
movement of goods, services, capital and people, alongside a regulatory environment that
enables businesses to invest, innovate and trade across borders without barriers. In order
for the roadmap to really be a “historic overhaul of the Single Market” as stated in the
Commission President 2026 State of the Union Address2, the European business community
calls on the EU institutions to translate their commitments into concrete actions and prioritise
the following:

Deepening the Single Market:

• Ensure that the Commission and the co-legislators urgently deliver the full removal
  of the ‘Terrible Ten’ Single Market barriers as identified in the Commission’s 2025
  Single Market Strategy; that Member States reduce regulatory fragmentation resulting
  from gold-plating; and that the Commission takes decisive action where Member
  States fail to remove diverging, unnecessary and disproportionate national provisions.
  Moreover, complete the Single Market beyond the ‘Terrible Ten’ across all critical
  areas, including energy, environment, digital, retail, banking and capital, health and
  defence.
• Set longer-term Single Market integration targets, comparable to those established
  for the green and digital transitions, to provide strategic direction for EU policymaking.
• Strengthen Single Market governance by ensuring that adherence to the four Single
  Market freedoms is systematically embedded across the work of all Commission
  services, from the drafting of proposals and negotiations with the co-legislators to the
  enforcement of existing rules, and by providing adequate resources to support this. At
  the same time, give DG GROW a stronger mandate to oversee the Commission’s
  adherence to the Single Market principles.
• Safeguard the integrity of the Single Market across all policy initiatives by ensuring
  that new legislation does not inadvertently create fragmentation or new barriers and
  by closely involving the business community to ensure that legislative initiatives reflect
  real-world operational needs. At the same time, demonstrate to citizens across the EU
  the benefits of deeper Single Market integration.
• Improve notification of national (draft) rules to enhance the quality of national
  legislation and prevent the adoption of potentially infringing rules. To strengthen
  enforcement and compliance, ensure that the Commission effectively follows up on
  Member States’ failures to notify and ensure respective information provision to
  stakeholders.
• Ensure stronger political ownership and coordination by making the improvement of
  the Single Market a permanent agenda item of the Competitiveness Council.
• Clarify governance and coordination between SMET, the Single Market sherpas, and
  the Simplification Platform to ensure coherent decision-making, and establish clear
  responsibility for removing barriers and reducing regulatory burden for companies.

Delivering tangible regulatory burden reduction:

• Urgently propose the remaining Omnibus packages, together with additional burden
  reduction measures, strictly maintaining the objective of significantly reducing
  regulatory and compliance costs for businesses. Such measures are most urgently
  needed in the areas of social, consumer protection, digital, circular economy, and
  public procurement policy.
• Introduce an immediate moratorium on new regulatory burdens, including
  secondary legislation, withdraw pending burdensome proposals and conduct in-depth
  review of all EU legislation.
• Demonstrate regulatory discipline and ensure that any future legislative initiative is
  justified by a clear policy need for intervention at EU level, supported by robust
  impact assessments, including for substantial amendments introduced by the co
  legislators, and thorough evaluations of existing legislation. To this end, update and
  reinforce the commitments set out in the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law
  Making (IIA). Where new initiatives are necessary, starting with the European Product
  Act, they should focus on improving the functioning of the Single Market, without
  creating unnecessary additional burden for businesses.

The European business community calls on the European Commission and the co-legislators
to demonstrate political leadership, urgency, and commitment in implementing these
recommendations. It stands ready to work with the EU institutions to support implementation
and help deliver tangible results for businesses across Europe.