Single market for Europeans

The Internal Market and Consumer Protection adopted the own-initiative report by António Fernando CORREIA DE CAMPOS (S&D, PT) on a Single Market for Europeans. It welcomes the Commission Communication entitled ‘Towards a Single Market Act -50 proposals for improving our work, business and exchanges with one another’.

Members consider  that  the  Communication's  proposals  are  generally  in  line  with  Parliament’s expectations, but need to be further strengthened in order for citizens to be at the heart of the Single Market project.

The committee takes the view that Europeans have not yet fully exploited the potential of the Single Market in many areas, including the free movement of persons, goods and services, and that new incentives are needed in particular to ensure effective geographical labour mobility across Europe. The Single Market strategy should strengthen social welfare and workers' rights and ensure fair working conditions for all Europeans.

Members consider that efforts to complete the Single Market need to concentrate on the concerns and rights of citizens, consumers , public service users and businesses and bring them tangible benefits in order to restore their full confidence in the Single Market and make them more aware of the opportunities it offers. They urge  Member  States  and  the  Commission  to  join  forces  to  put  the  Single  Market message across to citizens and to ensure that its benefits are recognised.

The report stresses that the Single Market for Europeans is primarily about jobs and creating new jobs. The 19 actions proposed by the Commission should be prioritised according to their impact on job creation and their delivery of tangible benefits as well as their feasibility for European citizens in a realistic period of time.

Members recall also that Parliament called for greater recognition for social economy enterprises, including the generalised integration of the concept into EU policies.

The Commission is asked to endorse the following list of proposals as key Parliament priorities:

• adopt a clear and readily accessible ‘Citizens’ Charter’ on the right to live and work anywhere in the EU, and to develop targeted, multilingual  information about the everyday problems that citizens encounter when moving, shopping or selling across Europe and the social, health, consumer protection and environmental protection standards on which they can rely;
• take  measures  to  increase  the  mobility  of European  citizens,  in  particular  by  publishing  by  September  2011  a  Green Paper  on  the  recognition  of  professional  qualifications,  including  an assessment  of  the  existing  framework,  and,  if  appropriate,  to  propose  a legislative  initiative  to  reform  this  framework  in  2012, at  the  same  time assessing the feasibility and the added value of EU wide professional identity cards  and  a  ‘European  skills  passport’  in  2011  and  setting up  a  ‘mobility scoreboard’ to measure mobility within the EU;
• play  a  more  active  role  in  coordinating the activities of national market surveillance and customs authorities, in order to  improve  the  effectiveness  of  border  controls  on  goods  imported  from  third countries,  and  to  draw  up  in  2011  a  multiannual  action  plan  for  the  development  of  an  effective  European  market  surveillance  system  for  all products,  while  allowing  Member  States  flexibility  in  fulfilling  their  legal obligations;
• ask the Member States which are still imposing restrictions on their labour markets to review their transitional provisions in order to open up their labour markets to all European workers;
• present put forward practical proposals to extend consumer protection against unfair commercial practices to small businesses;
• sponsor a European skills exchange whereby small and medium sized enterprises can benefit from the skills available in larger enterprises;
• propose  an extension of the existing roaming regulation both in time   to June 2015 - and in scope, introducing retail price caps for data roaming;  
• submit  by  June  2011  a  legislative  proposal  on guaranteeing  access  to  certain  basic  banking  services  and  to  improve  the transparency and comparability of bank charges by the end of 2011;
• eliminate the tax obstacles still faced by European citizens, with stronger action to prevent double taxation of European citizens;
• come  up  with  a  legislative  proposal  to  remove obstacles encountered by mobile workers in order to ensure the full portability of pension rights;
• clarify the criteria governing the compatibility of state aid and public procurement in connection with social services of general interest (SSGI) with the internal market.

Lastly, Members call  for  measures  to  create  an  appropriate  legal  framework  for  foundations,  mutual  societies and associations so as to give them European status, to prevent legal uncertainty.