In the late twentieth century, the European Union (EU) emerged as a global leader in setting environmental protections, including vehicle emissions standards. But member state consensus around environmental rules did not come easily, and the regional norms eventually set by the EU and its...

The single market is the European Union's most powerful economic asset, yet persistent barriers continue to undermine its potential. We argue that realising that potential requires a dual strategy: strengthening compliance with existing rules and advancing targeted harmonisation where regulatory...

We propose and construct novel measures of the effectiveness and potential of trade blocs, combining estimation with granular data and simulation with a New Quantitative Trade Model. We deploy our methods and new indexes to quantify the potential benefits from (i) further integration within the...

The European Union's industrial policy has gained renewed significance in response to geopolitical shifts, intensifying global competition, and the twin digital and green transitions. This paper analyses the coinciding role that EU State aid law plays as a coordinating instrument for EU...

This paper argues that the potential of the European single market in providing economic security within a dramatically changed context has been overlooked. It aims to fill the gaps in current understandings of economic security by developing an expanded framework that incorporates the key...

This paper explores the role of export-oriented firms in shaping regional economic development, with a focus on their operational footprint, strategic orientation, and interaction with institutional and infrastructural environments. Set within the broader context of regional competitiveness and...

This analysis looks at the compatibility with the EU Treaties of rules requiring signs, information and customer service to be in a regional language which is an official language of a Member States but not an official language of the EU. In order for rules to fall within the scope of the Treaty...

This analysis looks at the compatibility with the EU Treaties of rules requiring signs, information and customer service to be in a regional language which is an official language of a Member States but not an official language of the EU. In order for rules to fall within the scope of the Treaty...

Focusing on a cross-border perspective, this paper identifies four key binding constraints that hinder firms' ability to innovate and scale up within the EU single market-fragmented regulations, inefficient financial intermediation, limited labor mobility, and fragmented energy market. To...

The Single Market Programme (SMP) is an EU funding programme providing EUR 4.2 billion over the period of 2021-2027 for an integrated package to improve the functioning of the internal market and protect and empower citizens and businesses, in particular SMEs. It brings together six predecessor...

The Single Market Programme (SMP) is an EU funding programme providing EUR 4.2 billion over the period of 2021-2027 for an integrated package to improve the functioning of the internal market and protect and empower citizens and businesses, in particular SMEs. It brings together six predecessor...

The Single Market Programme (SMP) aims to support a well-functioning, sustainable internal market through financing activities within six pillars relating to different policy fields. This report forms part of the mid-term evaluation, which has assessed the design, implementation and first...

What is the economic impact of having established a common market in the European Union (EU)? This paper aims to shed light on this fundamental question. It presents the main trends in integration, reviews the existing literature, and summarises the various estimates of its impacts as well as...

As global trade faces new obstacles, Europe must remove the remaining barriers within the Single Market. These barriers disrupt the smooth flow of goods and services, restricting cross-border trade and investments. Tackling the 10 most harmful barriers will make it easier and simpler to do...

The new Single Market Strategy will strengthen our European home market, our anchor of stability and resilience in an uncertain world. For more than thirty years, the Single Market has been Europe's driver of growth and prosperity, offering a stable and predictable environment grounded in the...

The European Union faces several simultaneous threats to its competitiveness: weakness in the industries of the future, insufficient innovation, expensive energy, the need to green its economy, and geopolitical and trade shifts, to name but a few. The EconPol Europe Annual Conference, on whose...

The European Union needs a single market for capital. Well-developed and integrated capital markets are necessary to support economic growth and resilience across the region, while offering benefits for businesses, households and financial stability. This paper examines the importance of the CMU...

We propose and construct novel measures of the effectiveness and potential of trade blocs, combining estimation with granular data and simulation with a New Quantitative Trade Model. We deploy our methods and new indexes to quantify the potential benefits from (i) further integration within the...

The service sector has been a key driver of growth in the European Union (EU) over the past two decades. However, despite the principle of free movement of services, the single market still faces significant national barriers and remains a patchwork of 27 systems across member states....

In the context of the policy debate around business practices related to the marketing of branded food products as being identical (i.e. in their brand and appearance on the packaging) across EU Member States when, in fact, they differ significantly in composition or characteristics (i.e. in...

This is the 13th edition of the TARGET2-Securities Annual Report, which now covers a sixth full year since the end of the T2S migration period. The first edition was published in 2011, a pivotal year for the finalisation of the legal and technical documentation of T2S and for the CSDs'...

This is the 13th edition of the TARGET2-Securities Annual Report, which now covers a sixth full year since the end of the T2S migration period. The first edition was published in 2011, a pivotal year for the finalisation of the legal and technical documentation of T2S and for the CSDs'...

IMI is a generic online application connecting public authorities across borders and languages. Accessible to more than 30 000 users, IMI contains, in a secure environment, harmonised digital workflows and pre-defined communication forms, available in 23 languages that allow exchanges of...

IMI is a generic online application connecting public authorities across borders and languages. Accessible to more than 30 000 users, IMI contains, in a secure environment, harmonised digital workflows and pre-defined communication forms, available in 23 languages that allow exchanges of...

The single market has been a key pillar of Europe's economic success, but needs to be adapted to new developments and demands, such as the twin transition, in order to contribute to a competitive and successful European Union. A successful continuation of the single market demands improvements...

In its first ten years (2014-2023), the banking union was successful in its prudential agenda but failed spectacularly in its underlying objective: establishing a single banking market in the euro area. This goal is now more important than ever, and easier to attain than at any time in the last...

As a company you can run into all kinds of legal and administrative obstacles preventing you from smoothly operating across the EU's single market. The European Commission is tracking these barriers in many areas, such as: insurance to do business, access to markets, including authorisations and...

As a company you can run into all kinds of legal and administrative obstacles preventing you from smoothly operating across the EU's single market. The European Commission is tracking these barriers in many areas, such as: insurance to do business, access to markets, including authorisations and...

Cyber Europe is a series of European Union-level cyber incident and crisis management exercises organised by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), intended for both the public and private sector across the European Union and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Member States....

Cyber Europe is a series of European Union-level cyber incident and crisis management exercises organised by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), intended for both the public and private sector across the European Union and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Member States....

EU enlargements have given new EU member states access to the European Single Market. While tariff liberalisation was already completed at the time of enlargement, technical regulations were subject to different sectoral approaches, including harmonisation and mutual recognition. We employ a...

The creation of a single market in Europe, conceived as the application of the so-called four freedoms (goods, services, capital and manpower) of movement was in vogue in the 1990s. What has happened to this dream? At the time not only business communities but also consumer associations, and...

Low market integration is a major barrier to European competitiveness in the digital economy. International collaboration of knowledge workers could help to harness market size advantage. Data from the largest coding platform reveals digital collaboration in Europe drops by 16.4 percent at...

In its first ten years (2014-2023), the banking union was successful in its prudential agenda but failed spectacularly in its underlying objective: establishing a single banking market in the euro area. This goal is now more important than ever, and easier to attain than at any time in the last...

The foundation of the European Union-Turkey economic and trade relations lies in the Customs Union and more broadly in the bilateral preferential trade framework, established in December 1995. For over nearly three decades, this partnership has played a pivotal role in integrating Turkish...

Since 25 June 2024, the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) have been engaging in accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. The EU wants and needs to provide a strategic response to new geopolitical challenges, especially the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. At the same...