Debate in Parliament

The Council exchanged views on the functioning of the internal market, following a presentation by the Commission on the main elements of the Commission communication: " Single market delivering smart sustainable and inclusive economic growth ", expected to be released before end of October 2010.

The communication, also called the "Single Market Act" (SMA), will be a two year plan (2011-2012) containing around fifty initiatives aimed at ensuring a continuous optimization of the internal market and intended to contribute to the successful implementation of the EU 2020 objectives for stimulating employment and economic growth.

The Council looked into the process and instruments for checking periodically the implementation of the SMA. During the follow-up, particular attention will be given to the progress made to remove failures that will be identified in the SMA, as well as to the means and actions to promote competitiveness in each individual country and in the EU as a whole.

Particular measures should be taken in order to strengthen citizen’s confidence in the internal market, with the objective to, notably:

ensure proper enforcement of internal market rules; better explain the concrete advantages people can draw from it; remove difficulties that citizens still encounter in dealing with the internal market rules; and better coordinate actions to be carried out on a regular basis.

Ministers highlighted the importance of developing methods for assessing and monitoring the competitiveness of the EU in comparison with third countries, and ways to address difficulties that European companies face, including access to markets and intellectual property rights.

Many delegations also mentioned:

the interest of establishing a list of priorities contributing to boost competitiveness; ways to ensure the overall coherence of different EU policies and measures related to the internal market; and the design of an ambitious timetable for implementation of the SMA.

The Presidency plans to propose a set of draft conclusions on the SMA for adoption by the Council at a forthcoming ministerial meeting.

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