Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

European Business Wallet

Planned for Q4 2025.

It will provide a legally recognised digital identity for economic operators, enabling companies to share verified data and credentials across borders and receive notifications in a secure channel. Built on BRIS and the European Unique Identifier, and aligned with the EU Digital Identity Wallet rollout and the Once-Only Technical System, it replaces document-heavy compliance with interoperable, data-based exchanges. The Wallet is a cornerstone of the Single Market simplification agenda and the EU Startup & Scaleup Strategy, lowering costs for SMEs, easing licensing and reporting, and making cross-border operations seamless, turning digital-by-default rules into practice across the EU business lifecycle.

28th Regime

Planned for Q1 2026.

It will create an optional, EU-wide corporate framework—digital by default—to let innovative firms set up, operate, and raise capital seamlessly across borders. The proposal may rely on TFEU Article 352 or a harmonised national form via Articles 50/114, with a progressive, modular design. It targets 48-hour incorporation and “once-only” data sharing via BRIS, EUID, and an EU Company Certificate, leveraging the European Business Wallet. Investment-friendly options under consideration include simpler capital increases, flexible share classes, and standard private-equity terms. Complementing the European Innovation Act, it cuts failure costs, fragmentation, and compliance burdens.

Action Plan against Cyberbullying

Planned for Q1 2026.

The Commission will present a comprehensive EU approach to prevent, detect and respond to cyberbullying, with a primary focus on minors and youth. It will set a common EU definition, promote national strategies and focal points (e.g. trusted flaggers), and prioritise vulnerable groups including girls and women, LGBTIQ youth, migrants and persons with disabilities. Actions span prevention and digital well-being, safer product design, streamlined reporting and takedown (scaling good practices like France’s App 3018), victim support, and proportionate responses to perpetrators. Delivery will leverage and enforce the DSA, BIK+ and victims/VAW directives, with progress monitored through Safer Internet Centres, BIK policy reports and DSA enforcement.

Antitrust Procedural Rules Update

Planned for Q3 2026.

The Commission will revise Regulation (EU) 1/2003 and its implementing act to make antitrust enforcement faster, digital-ready, coherent. Options include stand-alone data-preservation orders; inspection powers covering all business records regardless of storage; the ability to summon individuals; streamlined interim measures and time-bound commitment proceedings; and a modernised access-to-file regime via confidentiality-bound external advisors. The review may harmonise complainant and third-party participation and strengthen coordination where Member States use stricter unilateral-conduct laws, safeguarding single-market consistency. The initiative seeks effective application of Articles 101/102 while reducing administrative burden, incorporating case law, and clarifying rules.

AVMSD Update

Planned for Q3 2026.

The Commission will run the AVMSD ex-post evaluation under Article 33 by 19 December 2026, followed, where appropriate, by proposals to review the Directive. Council conclusions (May 2025) suggested key reform priorities: clarify scope (incl. influencers/professional creators), ensure coherent interplay with DSA/EMFA, strengthen protection of minors and rules for VSPs, safeguard prominence/access to general-interest content and major events, and improve cross-border enforcement through the new European Board for Media Services. The exercise should keep the Single Market as the anchor (country-of-origin), avoid overlapping obligations, and de-risk regulatory fragmentation via clear definitions and digital-by-default, once-only procedures.

Circular Economy Act

Planned for Q3 2026.

The Act will create a true Single Market for waste and secondary raw materials, boosting supply and demand for quality recyclates at competitive prices. It will harmonise end-of-waste criteria, simplify and expand extended producer responsibility (including a one-stop producer registry), and revise e-waste rules to recover critical materials, while aligning with the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products framework. Public procurement criteria, incentives for scrap use, and digitalised demolition permits will accelerate circular design and recycling. Strong enforcement—including for e-commerce channels—will ensure compliance.

Definition of Startups

Planned for Q1 2026.

The Commission will propose a harmonised EU definition of startups, scaleups and innovative companies, building on existing SME and new small-mid cap (SMC) categories to ensure coherence across policies and datasets. This closes today’s patchwork of national and programme-specific definitions that hinders measurement and targeted support. The common taxonomy will underpin a European Startup & Scaleup Scoreboard and KPIs, enable tailored financing and simplification measures, and align eligibility across EU instruments and Member State schemes. It complements the Single Market Strategy’s formal SMC definition so high-growth companies can benefit from rules as they scale across borders.

Digital Fairness Act

Planned for Q4 2026.

Based on a fitness check of EU consumer law in 2024, the Commission plans to propose a Digital Fairness Act that curbs manipulative design (“dark patterns”), addictive features and subscription traps; clarifies rules for influencer and AI-driven marketing; strengthens protections for minors; and streamlines information duties so consumers face less overload and can cancel easily. Options include amending the Unfair Commercial Practices and Consumer Rights directives or proposing a new regulation, ensuring coherence with the DSA, DMA and the AI Act. It will drive harmonised, high-impact enforcement with clear duties for platforms and advertisers, easy redress for consumers, and deterrent penalties.

Dual-Use Update

Planned for Q4 2026.

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eInvoicing Directive

Introduced in Q4 2026.

The reform will make the EU eInvoicing standard and eDelivery specifications interoperable and ubiquitous across the Single Market. The Commission will recommend embedding an eInvoicing module in all accounting software and auditing national certification schemes, while piloting reuse of invoice data for sustainability reporting and linking it with customs data via the EU Customs Data Hub to increase transparency. The acquis on e-Invoicing in public procurement will be recast as a directly applicable Regulation, making the EU standard mandatory. Together with the Single Digital Gateway, Once-Only and the Digital Product Passport, this builds a coherent, data-driven reporting ecosystem.

EU Market Surveillance Authority

Planned for Q2 2025.

To protect consumers and fair competition, the Commission will explore an EU authority that coordinates national enforcers, pools capacity, and targets highest-risk flows. Today, e-commerce accounts for 97% of customs declarations, overwhelming border controls; EU-level governance is needed to act swiftly and uniformly against unsafe, counterfeit, or non-compliant products. Working with the planned Customs Authority and EU Customs Data Hub, it would run joint, risk-based operations and close gaps where national action is insufficient. In tandem, the review of the New Legislative Framework and deployment of Digital Product Passports would provide machine-readable conformity data to boost traceability, speed recalls, and strengthen cross-border enforcement.

Horizontal Merger Control Guidelines

Planned for Q4 2027.

The Commission will modernise the Horizontal and Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines to reflect dynamic, innovation-driven competition and Europe’s strategic needs. The review will better weigh innovation, resilience, investment intensity in strategic sectors; recognise supply-chain security and scale economies where relevant; and clarify treatment of ecosystem and data-driven effects. The update will codify recent case law and practice, streamline evidence standards, and provide faster procedures, including clearer safe harbours and remedies guidance. While preserving a level playing field, the revised approach will align merger control with the competitiveness agenda, closing the innovation gap, enabling efficient European scale, and supporting decarbonisation.

Public Procurement Reform

Planned for Q2 2026.

The Commission will overhaul the EU procurement framework to make public spending a strategic lever for competitiveness, security and innovation. The revision will enable sustainability, resilience and European-preference criteria in strategic sectors, while staying consistent with EU and international commitments. It will simplify and digitise procedures, embed once-only data reuse, curb overspecification, and promote innovation-friendly tools (e.g. outcome-based/R&D purchases, clearer IP clauses). Rules will be consolidated across legislation to ease use by all administrations and open tenders to startups and SMEs. Defence and security procurement will be modernised and cross-border aggregation strengthened to create lead markets and scale.

New Legislative Framework Review

Planned for Q3 2026.

The Commission will modernise EU product rules to enable faster, coordinated action when risks emerge, set clear, time-bound requirements for notified conformity assessment bodies, and clarify the responsibilities of economic operators in circularity to extend product lifecycles. It will fully digitise compliance via the Digital Product Passport and harmonised digital labelling (QR-code based), replacing paper dossiers and easing SME burden. Enforcement will be strengthened in light of surging e-commerce imports and a fragmented market-surveillance landscape. A progressive rollout of the DPP (potentially included through the NLF review in Q2 2026) will anchor instant, trusted access to essential product information across the Single Market and support consistent application of EU product law.

Standardisation Regulation Revision

Planned for Q3 2026.

The Commission will overhaul the Standardisation Regulation to make harmonised standards faster, more flexible and inclusive (bringing SMEs, startups, civil society and academia fully into the process) while improving access to standards and hard-wiring closer links with research and innovation. It will mandate structured, machine-readable formats and provide training to cut compliance costs and make standards easier to use, reinforcing the EU’s role as a global standard-setter and supporting the effective functioning of EU product legislation at the heart of the Single Market. Implementation will prioritise AI, semiconductors, clean tech and advanced materials, with clearer governance and faster mandates so EU standards swiftly become interoperable market rules.

Single Digital Booking and Ticketing for Rail

Planned for Q4 2025.

The Commission will propose an EU framework enabling passengers to buy a single ticket for cross-border rail journeys across multiple operators, with passengers’ rights applying across the whole trip. It will mandate interoperable data and open, non-discriminatory APIs for schedules, fares and reservation systems; ensure through-ticketing, real-time disruption information and seamless refunds/re-routing; and set governance for liability, revenue settlement and dispute resolution. The initiative complements paperless mobility actions and aims to make rail a convenient, default choice for long-distance travel while boosting tourism and Single Market integration.

Single Market Barriers Prevention Act

Planned for Q3 2027.

The EU will move from reacting to fragmentation to preventing it at source. Building on the Single Market Strategy, the Act would systematise ex-ante screening of draft national measures, reinforce notification/transparency obligations, and require Member States to self-assess EU-law compliance before adoption, curbing “gold-plating.” It would hard-wire a competitiveness/SME check for significant amendments, introduce rapid-reaction deadlines to fix non-compliant rules, and align agencies and regulators to ensure uniform application. Annual progress reporting and more decisive infringement where needed will anchor accountability, complemented by a shift to digital-by-default administration and a “1-in, 27-out” simplification ethos to keep new barriers from emerging.

Single Market Roadmap to 2028

Planned for Q1 2026.

The Commission will set milestones to finish the Single Market where it matters most (i.e. capital, services, energy and telecoms) while advancing a 28th regime and a ‘fifth freedom’ for knowledge and innovation. The roadmap will tackle the “Terrible Ten” barriers, codify digital-by-default procedures, and use the Competitiveness Coordination Tool to align national reforms and EU investment. A delivery scoreboard will track progress, backed by faster infringement action and “once-only” data sharing for firms. Measures include deepening the Capital Markets/Savings & Investment Union, grid and interconnector build-out, the Digital Networks Act, and service-sector opening, turning commitments into measurable outcomes.

Single Market Sherpa

Planned for Q4 2025.

To hard-wire enforcement and barrier prevention, Member States will appoint a high-level “Single Market Sherpa” in the prime minister’s/president’s office with authority across government. Sherpas will proactively police gold-plating, coordinate proportionality checks at the inception of national rules, and fix regulatory or administrative obstacles before they fragment the market. They will cooperate in a permanent network convened by the Commission’s Executive Vice-President, meeting regularly to accelerate barrier removal and to give political steer to the Single Market Enforcement Taskforce (SMET), including via an annual high-level session with responsible ministers.

SME ID Tool

Introduced in May 2025.

The Commission will roll out a simple, multilingual self-declaration SME ID so companies can instantly prove SME status across the EU, cutting red tape when dealing with authorities, banks and support schemes. Rules will be encouraged to reference this ID as default evidence, with extra paperwork requested only in duly justified cases. The tool sits within a broader SME package: a formal EU definition of small mid-caps (250–749 employees) and Omnibus measures to extend SME-style simplifications to them, plus systematic “SME-friendly” clauses in new laws and a reinforced SME check in impact assessments, all to ease cross-border operations and scaling in the Single Market.

Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (TTBER)

The Commission is revising the TTBER and accompanying Guidelines to modernise EU rules for IP licensing and speed the diffusion of innovation. The draft updates clarify market-share safe harbours (including a longer grace period), address data licensing, strengthen soft safe-harbours for technology pools, and introduce guidance for licensing negotiation groups, alongside updated case-law on settlements and no-challenge clauses. The aim is greater legal certainty for pro-competitive collaboration (especially in data- and AI-intensive sectors) while safeguarding competition.

Territorial Supply Constraints

Planned for Q4 2026.

The Commission will propose a horizontal tool to tackle unjustified territorial supply constraints that fall outside antitrust, notably unilateral practices by manufacturers that ration cross-border supply, impose dual pricing, or tailor products by market to block parallel trade. The instrument will introduce transparency and non-discrimination obligations on wholesale terms, a fast-track complaint and remedy system for SMEs and retailers, powers to request information and impose dissuasive fines, and cooperation with national authorities. It will interface with geo-blocking, consumer and product rules, creating a right to comparable access to goods across the Union, lowering price gaps and expanding choice.