According to a draft seen by EuroNews, efforts to promote digitalization of the single market underpins a new strategy to bring life to the project announced by EU commissioner Stéphane Séjourné on Wednesday.
The plan sets six pillars for improving the single market and refers to the context of a global trade crisis.
The Commission hopes to remove 10 “bad” market barriers currently “having a negative impact on trade and investment,” boost the European service market that brings the highest economic value, reduce the burden on small businesses, digitize management, and encourage member states to address national-level management barriers.
Another single market omnibus proposal, scheduled to be released on Wednesday along with the strategy, is designed to reduce deficits for small and medium-sized businesses and promises to shift the sector “from a document to a single market for databases.”
Fragmented IT systems, and the lack of data exchange, make it difficult for businesses to comply with regulatory requirements. The committee’s text highlights the need to “migrate from exchanging paper documents to exchanging digital data.”
It proposes to force the creation of so-called Digital Product Passports (DPPs) to allow companies to disclose and share product information, including conformance documents, manuals, safety and technical information, across all new and revised product laws.
The first DPP for batteries is expected to be operational under the plan in 2027, with the tool being deployed in other product categories. This will “provide rapid cost savings for both economic operators and authorities,” the text says.
Further digitalisation efforts include promoting digital invoices that currently have low ingestion across the block. The committee will propose a proposal late next year to become an essential standard for public procurement.
The strategy also envisages modernizing the current framework of product rules that determine what will be placed in a market that requires “improvement.” through planned reforms scheduled for the second quarter of next year.
Beuc, spokesman for European consumer groups, told Euronows that current rules do not properly address “the many challenges posed by e-commerce,” allowing them to enter the EU market through online markets.
High-level political meetings to target services
The strategy targets the promotion of services across the single market, and highlights regulations in the member states that the document currently claims to limit access to around 5,700 service activities.
This proposes addressing this by harmonizing the authorization and authentication schemes of service providers across the single market, and through new rules to enable highly skilled workers to provide services more readily on a temporary basis. The European Social Security Pass will also be implemented, allowing digital verification of social security rights.
Additionally, legislative proposals cover territorial supply constraints imposed by large manufacturers that prevent retailers who purchase products in one member state from being resold in another state.
The strategy proposes that member state governments appoint so-called “Sherpas” to operate within the prime minister or president’s office to facilitate the application of the rulebook.
The EU Executive is a group that brings member state authorities to committees and committees to strengthen the existing single market executive task force, proposing the annual high-level political meetings of EU ministers, the single market state “Sherpas” and Sejarun to provide strategic and political leadership to the task force. The first high-level political conference should be held at the end of the year.
The Omnibus package presented on Wednesday should improve standardization that is too slow, according to EU executives, by allowing the committee to establish common specifications. The aim is also to strengthen the EU’s role as a global standard setter. A review of the standard rules will also be published.
EU MP Sofia Kircher (Austria/EPP) told Euronows that the services and capital markets sector are currently struggling with a lack of harmony. “The national differences in regulations make small businesses slower, especially when they want to operate across borders,” Kilcher said.
