Twelve levers

Twelve “levers” to strengthen the single market, “the real growth engine of the European Union”. The proposals are included in the Single Market Act adopted April 13 by the Commission. The European Parliament and the Council are due to debate the proposal, the aim being to implement related initiatives before the end of 2012 in order to relaunch the single market, “the EU’s most comprehensive response to the crisis”, the Executive declared, so as to value the potential for growth of EU27.The driving force of development. “‘The Single Market has always been the driving force behind our economic development and prosperity”, declared the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso. “The twelve projects that we are launching today will make it possible to give it new momentum which will significantly benefit businesses, workers and consumers”. “These twelve instruments of growth, competitiveness and social progress range from worker mobility to SME finance and consumer protection, via digital content, taxation and trans-European networks. Each “instrument” is accompanied by a “flagship initiative” on which the Commission undertakes to make proposals during the coming months. The aim being to gain final approval from the European Parliament and the Council before the end of 2012″. Barroso pointed out that each instrument also contains other, equally important proposals which should benefit from the momentum generated by the flagship initiative in order to make progress – sometimes in parallel and sometimes at a slightly slower rate”.A sustainable model. The Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier said that the proposal “is a coherent response to the shortcomings of the internal market and aims at a sustainable and inclusive growth model”. The Commission “calls on all those concerned, first and foremost the Member States and the European Parliament, to make this action plan their own by quickly adopting the twelve key measures by 2012, so as to give the initiatives of Single Market players a greater chance to benefit fully from the opportunities on offer”. At the end of next year the Executive will take stock of the progress of this action plan and present its programme for the next stage. Barnier said: “Its considerations will be fed by a large-scale economic study, the results of which should help to identify any areas with still unexploited growth potential”.SMEs and worker mobility. What are these twelve instruments? They are illustrated in a Commission document that begins with access to finance for SMEs. “This is a crucial measure for over 20 million small and medium-sized European enterprises which, lacking finance, often have difficulty in recruiting staff, launching new products or building up their infrastructure”. The aim is therefore to put in place “common rules for venture-capital funds, enabling those established in one Member State to invest in any other Member State”. The second point regards workers’ mobility. “In 2009 -states the Commission – 5.8 million Europeans, equivalent to 2.5 % of the active population of the European Union, worked in another Member State”. Enhanced mobility for qualified workers would help the European economy to be more competitive. The fact that many posts for highly-qualified personnel remain vacant makes this all the more urgent”.Consumers, social enterprise. Other instruments address intellectual property rights, consumer protection, whose rights must be guaranteed by developing alternative approaches to dispute settlement and “putting in place non-judicial means of redress”, services, European networks, (transport, energy, electronic communications). Other important levers are the digital single market, social entrepreneurship, taxation, more social cohesion, regulatory environment for business, public procurement. As regards social entrepreneurship the Commission writes in the document: “Some companies set themselves the objective of fighting against social exclusion, whilst remaining profit-making”. Legal instruments should ensure that their objectives are transformed into action. The Commission plans to propose “a Social Business Initiative” to extend action “beyond national boundaries and facilitate access to the Union’s financial programmes in this area”.