A draft joint declaration on One Europe, One Market Roadmap calls for Brussels to penalize foot-dragging by EU countries.
Gregorio Sorgi, Francesca Micheletti
The EU’s goal is to eliminate by March 2027 the main barriers to the EU single market — the so-called “Terrible Ten.” These include complex EU rules, overlapping national legislation and complicated business establishment laws.
Brussels already launches legal proceedings against countries that obstruct trade across the single market. But these cases often drag on for years before fines are imposed. Commission officials have long encouraged quicker and more biting sanctions.
In a further attempt at increasing delivery by EU countries, the EU executive plans to link payouts under its next €1.8 trillion long-term budget to executing reforms to strengthen the single market.
The document also opens the door to smaller groups of countries joining forces to push forward reforms if there is no unanimous agreement among the bloc’s 27 states.
The plan highlights simplification as the first of five pillars that member countries should work on together with the EU institutions. These will include favoring agile legislative instruments and keeping tabs on rules that are making slow progress or not yielding results, the document says.
Key priorities also include a more integrated single market, championing strong trade, reducing energy prices and decarbonizing, and driving the digital and AI transformation.
A steering group including the Commission, Parliament and Council will watch over progress and touch base every two months. That would effectively institutionalize the three-way dialogue format, or “trilogue,” that serves as a forum for the EU institutions to hammer out compromises.
This report has been updated.
