Public consultation on EU Single Market Act (SMA)

In the article EU Towards a Single Market Act we looked at the basic choices of the communication 27.10.2010 COM(2010) 608 and the fifty proposals it sketched.


Public consultation

A number of events were organised during the consultation period, often with the commissioner Michel Barnier.

The results of the consultation on the Single Market Act (SMA) have been published, including an undated first overview of the 840 responses submitted in all, both online responses to the query and position papers (8 pages). The brief overview highlights priorities among different groups of respondents.


SEC(2011) 467

More information is offered by the Commission staff working paper:

Overview of responses to the public consultation on the Communication ‘Towards a Single Market Act'; Brussels, 13.4.2011 SEC(2011) 467 final (32 pages; published only in English)

The numbers are crunched with regard to the responses using the online consultation tool, but the separate position papers where included in the qualitative assessments.

In principle, the more detailed assessment follows the structure of the first overview, by looking at the responses from the different respondent groups and their varying priorities.


50 proposed SMA actions

As a quick reminder of the proposals outlined in the communication Towards a Single Market Act, the overview of the consultation responses offers an annex (pages 31-32) where the actions are listed in short form.

ANNEX: THE 50 PROPOSED ACTIONS OF THE SINGLE MARKET ACT

1. EU patent
2. Copyright
3. Counterfeiting and piracy
4. Internal market for services
5. Electronic commerce
6. Standardisation
7. Integrated transport system
8. Energy taxation
9. Business-to-business services
10. Ecological footprint of products
11. Energy efficiency
12. SME access to finance
13. Small Business Act review
14. Accounting rules
15. Project bonds
16. Private investment and venture capital
17. Public procurement
18. Services concessions
19. Common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB)
20. VAT
21. Interconnection of business registers
22. E-identification/authentication
23. International trade
24. International public procurement
25. Services of general economic interest (SGEI)
26. Transport infrastructures
27. Energy infrastructures
28. European radiospectrum
29. Respect for fundamental social rights and social impact analysis of legislation
30. Posting of workers to other Member States
31. Pensions
32. Industrial restructuring
33. Recognition of professional qualifications
34. Student mobility
35. Recognising skills and training
36. Social business
37. Social innovation
38. Corporate governance
39. Product safety
40. Access to basic banking services
41. Responsible lending and borrowing
42. Tax obstacles for citizens
43. Passenger rights
44. Evaluating implementation of rules with Member States
45. Information exchange between public authorities (IMI)
46. Alternative dispute resolution and collective redress
47. National transposition of EU rules
48. Consultation and dialogue with civil society
49. One-stop-stop for information and assistance
50. Informal problem-solving tools

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Our next destination, I think, should be the final Single Market Act (SMA).



Ralf Grahn
public speaker on EU affairs

P.S. Already multilingual Bloggingportal.eu aggregates the posts from 940 Euroblogs. They represent an important part of the emerging European online public space, discussion across national and linguistic borders. One of the most promising fresh entrants is the LSE European Politics and Policy (EUROPP) blog, where Ronny Patz recently wrote about the EU blogosphere and called for more academics to spread the word about their research and to discuss their findings closer to real life.

Among the Euroblogs on Bloggingportal.eu you find my current blog trio, Grahnlaw (recently ranked fourth among political blogs in Finland), the Nordic Grahnblawg (written in Swedish) and Eurooppaoikeus (meaning European Law, in Finnish). I write and speak about democracy, institutional issues and EU politics, but increasingly about the challenges of growth (EU2020) and the (digital) single market in the making, issues at policy level.