Single Market Week – 20th Anniversary

Delegation of twenty-two Czech companies arrived to Brussels on 17-18th Oct. to celebrate the Single Market Week. The aim of their visit to EU institutions was to better understand the progress in EU integration and to give a feedback to EU officials and decision-makers regarding barriers to Single Market.

Ambitious plan for creation of the Single Market for all Member States where goods, people, services and capital circulate freely was to be reached in 1992. Twenty years later, we think the Single Market has not been completed yet and some old (even new) barriers persist. The Single Market is not static, it is a dynamic process invoked by social, economic and technological progress. Newly appeared barriers require new regulation. Beginning nineties one would not expect that there would be the need to regulate Internet or create the Digital Single Market in the future. Economic and financial crisis has also pointed out how important it is to go deeper in the integration regarding the monetary union and economic governance. The crisis was also an impulse for some Member States to create new protectionist measures that must be fought in the name of the Single Market.

The delegation of Czech companies headed by Petr Kužel, President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce had the possibility during their stay in Brussels to talk about the Single Market with H.E. Martin Povejšil, Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the EU. According to Czech companies the main problems lie in burdensome regulation. Less means more! New EU legislation must be really needed. For this reason the impact assessments with specific focus on SMEs must be drafted and SME representative must have the right to be involved in this process. The gold-platting at national level must be avoided and Member States should be obliged to publish the correlation tables on one central website to make clear how the EU legislation was transposed. The companies also require heavy sanctions on Member States for late and bad transposition of EU law.

Among existing barriers the companies identified the recognition of professional qualifications, certifications and tests of products. One point they stressed was also the reduction of CO2 emissions and energy efficiency. The EU should not be the only global player in this sense. If we stay alone, we risk losing our competitiveness in the world!