Brussels, Belgium. European Union leaders agreed on Thursday on a wide-ranging set of commitments to improve how the bloc’s border-free internal market works amid economic rivalry from the United States and China.
Commitments to deepen the single market
Meeting at a Belgian castle, leaders agreed to speed up the completion of a savings and investment union, review merger rules to help create European champions, make it easier for companies to get started and operate, and cut red tape, top EU officials said. Leaders stressed the urgency of acting.
Commission plans and implementation approach
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union’s executive would also crack down on additional layers of legislation that member states add when implementing EU decisions. She said a preference for the purchase of European goods would be allowed in strategic sectors.
The European Commission will present in March a plan on how to proceed with the deepening of the European Union’s single market of 450 million consumers, with the aim for leaders to agree on a concrete timetable.
Savings and Investment Union timeline
Von der Leyen said the Commission would push ahead with a long-delayed capital markets union, aimed at investing more productively about 10 trillion euros of savings held in bank accounts. She said leaders agreed to complete phase one of the Savings and Investment Union, including market integration, supervision and securitization, by June.
She said that if it is impossible to move forward quickly with all 27 member states at the same time, the EU would proceed with a smaller group of at least nine countries.
Leaders’ reactions
European Council President Antonio Costa said the decisions to speed up unifying Europe’s single market were “really a game changer.” EU leaders repeatedly stressed that urgent action was needed.
Which of the agreed measures do you expect to have the most immediate impact on businesses in the European Union?
