Single Market Strategy

Infrastructure & Strategic Resources

This law will build a true Single Market for connectivity by harmonising authorisations and spectrum policy, enabling cross-border services and a coordinated path to 6G. It modernises the telecom rulebook to spur investment in fibre, 5G and cloud/edge networks, integrates satellite services, and tackles market fragmentation that keeps Europe split into various national markets. It will streamline permits, clarify open-internet rules for innovative services, support copper switch-off and cloud-based network transformation, and target up to a 50% reduction in reporting burdens. A stronger EU governance model will replace patchwork oversight, boosting resilience, security and scale for operators and users.

Infrastructure & Strategic Resources

The EU will deepen its Energy Union to deliver affordable, clean energy through stronger governance and integration. Therefore, the Commission will launch an Energy Union Task Force, publish a White Paper on electricity-market integration, revise the Governance Regulation, and present a Clean Energy Investment Strategy, a Nuclear Illustrative Programme (PINC), and a Fusion Strategy. It will table an Electrification Action Plan, a Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in the Energy Sector, and a Heating & Cooling Strategy to accelerate electrification, flexibility and efficiency. A revised energy-security framework will enhance stability and resilience, informed by lessons from the energy crisis.

Human Capital, Skills & Talent Mobility

The plan will deliver EU-level support to help national, regional and local authorities provide affordable, sustainable homes, while respecting subsidiarity. It addresses supply–demand imbalances, high building costs, permitting bottlenecks and skills shortages that drive up prices. Measures will mobilise investment (including an EIB platform), allow more cohesion funding for housing, adapt State-aid rules, and link renovations to the Social Climate Fund. The plan will accelerate permitting and procurement, improve rental-market functioning, and provide technical assistance so projects can scale quickly and fairly across regions and cities.

Human Capital, Skills & Talent Mobility

The Package will remove frictions to cross-border work while safeguarding rights, making Europe’s labour market more efficient. It will propose a European Social Security Pass for digital verification of entitlements, streamline posting procedures, and clarify social-security coordination for cross-border remote work. The package will strengthen the European Labour Authority’s mandate and data capabilities to improve enforcement and joint inspections. A Skills Portability Initiative will simplify recognition of qualifications and interoperable digital credentials, including for third-country nationals. Together, these measures cut administrative burden for employers and workers, enable service provision, and support talent circulation across the Single Market.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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 Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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 Deepening & Harmonisation

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 Deepening & Harmonisation

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.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

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.

Implementation, Simplification & Better Regulation

The Commission will table a defence-sector omnibus to cut red tape and speed delivery across the European defence industrial base. Measures include cross-certification and mutual recognition of testing, fast-tracked construction and environmental permits, secure handling of confidential data, and easier access to finance, including ESG-sensitive capital. It will streamline EU defence programmes, simplify co-funding, and prepare revisions of defence procurement and intra-EU transfer rules, followed by a faster EDF process. The package also supports security-of-supply and readiness, and leverages Ukraine’s innovative defence ecosystem within Team Europe instruments. Together, it builds a scalable EU-wide market for defence equipment.

Implementation, Simplification & Better Regulation

The Commission will table a simplification package to cut compliance costs in the digital acquis while preserving protections. It will rationalise data rules (i.e. DGA, Free Flow of Non-Personal Data, Open Data), modernise cookie/tracking provisions to curb consent fatigue, and streamline overlapping cybersecurity incident reporting, with targeted adjustments to ensure predictable application of the AI Act. It will also clarify obligations under the European Digital Identity framework and align with the forthcoming Business Wallet, applying ‘one-in, one-out’. A Digital Fitness Check will assess cumulative effects and cross-border fragmentation.

Implementation, Simplification & Better Regulation

The Commission will fast-track simplification by empowering common technical specifications when harmonised standards lag, and by digitalising compliance so firms can demonstrate conformity faster and paper-free. The package also extends existing SME mitigating measures to small mid-caps and removes redundant paper requirements in product laws, easing conformity assessment and cutting reporting overlaps. Together with the Single Market Strategy, it targets quicker time-to-market, legal certainty and lower costs while maintaining high safety and consumer protection. Delivery will be tied to measurable burden-reduction targets and periodic scorecards so businesses see real, near-term gains in every Member State.

Implementation, Simplification & Better Regulation

The Commission will audit mandates, governance and resources of Single Market authorities to eliminate overlap, gaps and conflicting procedures. The review will benchmark performance, map workflows, and propose consolidation, clarified competences, interoperable IT, joint inspections and mutual recognition of decisions. It will align agency tasks with the ‘Terrible Ten’ barrier agenda and forthcoming Omnibus simplifications, reducing compliance friction for SMEs and small mid-caps. Deliverables include a reform blueprint and actions to streamline supervision in priority sectors. Expected outcomes: accountability, faster enforcement, consistent interpretation of EU law, lower costs, and improved consumer protection.