EU Internal Market Report - "Radical master plan needed to deepen the Single Market"
Date
14 Feb 2024
Sections
InfoSociety
Frankfurt/Brussels, 14 February 2024 - Commenting on the EU-Commission's report on the EU Internal Market and the competitiveness of industry, VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann says:
- "Putting the EU Internal Market back on the political agenda was long overdue. In recent years, the EU has unfortunately neglected and sometimes weakened the Internal Market politically, even though it contributes significantly to the competitiveness of industry in Europe."
- "European industry is calling for a radical master plan to deepen and strengthen the European Single Market. Minor concerns of individual member states must not be allowed to hinder this process. From the posting of workers to inconsistent rules for the circular economy, there are currently too many obstacles, coupled with excessive bureaucracy, that hinder the free movement of goods, services, capital and people."
- "The Commission should urgently step up its ambitions with regard to the Single Market in order to establish an efficient European Single Market in the fields of energy, digitalization and the capital market, for example. This is also one of the main reasons why the VDMA has co-signed a joint statement of European business associations calling for a deepening of the Single Market and a renewal of the momentum of European integration."
VDMA has signed a joint declaration by European trade associations. You can find the letter here.
A photo of VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann can be found here.
VDMA represents more than 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 770 billion euros. Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.