The ESC welcomed the Community institutions’ recognition of the role of the economic and social interest groups - and particularly the Single Market Observatory set up by the ESC - contributing to the analysis of, and providing a direction for, work to complete the single market. It invited all European socio-economic interest groups to participate directly in the evaluation of the single market and to convey to the ESC any information that could be of use in helping to improve it. In spite of the considerable progress made since the publication of the 1985 White Paper, the ESC noted that the Commission report also made it clear that the single market was still incomplete. Concerned about the growing difficulties associated with the adoption of the final pieces of single market legislation, in contrast to the general speeding-up of issues affecting the Union, the ESC urged the Member States and the Community institutions to agree to make every effort to round off the necessary outstanding legislation - about thirty separate instruments - between now and the 1999 deadline for economic and monetary union. A list of the principal measures to complete the single market was attached to the Opinion. The 1996 Intergovernmental Conference should examine how qualified majority voting on questions vital to the single market could be extended, particularly in respect of free movement of persons, customs cooperation, environmental protection and intra-Community taxation. The ESC also pointed to the need to bolster the application of measures by introducing better monitoring, underpinned, at all levels, by effective sanctions. The correct application of single market rules also required the provision of a tighter framework for national exemptions from the principle of free movement, the extension of mutual recognition and the introduction of harmonisation in respect of national customs services. Finally, the ESC stressed the importance of the need to create, apart from provisions to loosen up trade and to ensure that they were correctly applied, a true force for convergence to relieve the pressures and imbalances that were caused both by the incomplete single market and the remoteness of economic and monetary union. Among other things, this would require increased economic and social convergence, better use of the Structural Funds, adjusting competition policy in line with the new realities of the opening-up of international markets, while at the same time actively preparing the countries of Central and Eastern Europe for their participation in the single market.

The rapporteur regretted that the Council had made little progress towards achieving the single market in 1994. Mr WATSON highlighted the most significant problems that were obstructing the realisation of the single market and, as a result, distorting competition: - the mutual recognition principle was often not observed in the Member States, - public procurement practices had barely changed since the sector was liberalised, - no steps had been taken to harmonise provisions in important areas of taxation, except in the case of VAT, - environmental regulations differed, - controls on individuals at internal borders had not been completely removed, - excessive bureaucracy was imposed on businesses, particularly SMEs, - national governments engaged in practices that ran counter to the Community standard. Moreover, the measures taken by national administrations to transpose Community legislation were sometimes excessive, thereby complicating regulations, impairing their efficiency and increasing the constraints on enterprises. However, deregulation alone was not the answer. Commissioner MONTI stated that the single market was the driving force behind European integration, on the one hand because it was the aspect of European integration that the citizens were most aware of, and on the other hand because it was the basis for European growth. He anticipated that the next Commission report for 1995 would be forwarded to Parliament well before this year’s deadline. It would contain a chapter on the relationship between the internal market and the environment and would in general provide as inclusive a view as possible of the market itself. The Commission had been working for 10 months on: a) completing the single market (a term that Mr Monti preferred to internal market, which was too insular), in terms of both legislation, in relation to the free movement of persons or the tax system, and infrastructures, for example the trans-European networks; b) applying effectively the existing measures for the implementation of the single market, establishing a ‘complaints’ office in each Member State for example; c) expanding the market, notably to the CEECs and to Cyprus and Malta; d) protecting the market by combating competitive devaluations and ensuring that if a ‘two-speed’ EMU were established there would be no other divisions within the market; e) placing the citizens at the heart of the single market by providing them with better information on their rights through the implementation of the ‘Citizens First’ initiative.