Single Market integration 2013 report

In the communication Better governance for the Single Market; Brussels, 8.6.2012 COM(2012) 259 final; the European Commission promised (page 5) an Annual Report on Single Market integration as part of the Annual Growth Survey, to be discussed by the Council and the European Parliament and be endorsed by the Spring European Council. The Annual report would contribute to the definition of country-specific recommendations, which would be based on a more in-depth analysis of performance in each Member State, in the context of the European semester process.

The European Parliament responded by its resolution of 7 February 2013 with recommendations to the Commission on the governance of the Single Market P7_TA(2013)0054, based on the IMCO report prepared by Andreas Schwab.

Based on the Parliament’s indirect right to propose - Article 225 TFEU - it asked for more:

1. Requests the Commission to submit as soon as possible, whilst considering as the possible legal basis all relevant provisions of the TFEU relating to the internal market, including Article 26(3) TFEU, a proposal for an act aimed at strengthening the governance of the Single Market, following the detailed recommendations set out in the Annex hereto;

Indeed, the annex contains detailed recommendations as to the content of the proposal requested (pages 14-19).  

Single Market integration 2013

At the end of November 2012 the Commission produced its report as a contribution to the Annual Growth Survey (AGS) and the European Semester 2013 exercise:

State of the Single Market integration 2013 - Contribution to the Annual Growth Survey 2013; Brussels, 28.11.2012 COM(2012) 752 final (22 pages)  

The first AGS related Single Market integration report outlined the situation concerning goods, services, capital and labour, before moving on to explain where it thought the Single Market potential was the greatest (from page 7):

Based on a number of economic indicators, services, financial services, transport, digital market and energy have been identified as key areas for priority policy action and enhanced implementation of the Single Market.

The priority sectors were discussed in a more detailed manner, leading to policy priorities for each:

• Services markets (pages 9-13)
• Energy markets (pages 13-16)
• Transport markets (pages 16-18)
• Digital markets (pages 18-21)

Spring European Council 2013

In the Spring European Council conclusions 14/15 March 2013 EUCO 23/13, point  

9, the European Council promised to give specific emphasis to some issues. EUCO hoped the member states would act on the recommendations and it welcomed the Single Market integration report for future AGS exercises (9(b)):

(b) the Single Market continues to be a key driver for growth and jobs. In this context, the European Council invites the Member States to take full account of the recommendations in the Commission's report on the state of integration of the Single Market and welcomes the Commission's intention to integrate such reporting into future Annual Growth Surveys. ---

Ralf Grahn