Frankfurt, 20 May 2025 – VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann comments on the EU Commission's single market strategy, which is being presented this week:

• "While an ambitious and comprehensive plan for the EU single market is welcome, it is also long overdue. For too long, the deepening of the single market has not received sufficient political attention, despite its importance and economic potential."

• "The global economic success of the European machinery manufacturing industry hinges on a strong and functioning EU single market. However, numerous problems must finally be tackled, such as barriers to posting workers and differing rules for setting up companies."

• "Unfortunately, the EU's single market strategy still lacks clarity on many details. It is now time to address the difficult issues and demonstrate greater ambition. Improving market surveillance must be a priority. Even well-intentioned and harmonized rules can undermine competitiveness if they are unfairly undermined by third countries."

VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann

The VDMA represents 3600 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and SMEs. The companies employ around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. In the European Union, it represents a turnover volume of an estimated 870 billion euros. Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.