In 2024, reports by Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi underlined that creating a truly integrated single market is critical for European competitiveness. In April 2024, the European Council called on the Commission to develop a horizontal single market strategy by June 2025. Conclusions adopted by the Competitiveness and Growth Council in May 2024 called on the Commission to adopt a new horizontal strategy to reduce fragmentation and complete the single market, including a roadmap with clear timelines and milestones for urgent and concrete actions.
In January 2025, in preparation for this Single Market Strategy, the EU Commission consulted citizens and stakeholders through a so-called Call for Evidence. With this consultation, the Commission aims to obtain information on the functioning of the single market, including on
• barriers to the free movement of goods and services in the single market and possible ways of addressing them;
• regulatory and administrative challenges in the single market and potential policy actions to address them;
• the horizontal governance of the single market and the enforcement of its rules, and possible initiatives to improve them.
In its response to this Call for Evidence, the ACE makes proposals to optimise the EU regulatory framework, including: the Professional Qualifications Directive, the Proportionality Test Directive, the Regulatory Restrictiveness Indicator, the Public Procurement Directives, the Services in the Internal Market Directive.
