What Strategy for a Genuine Single Market?

This strategy paper focuses on making the most of the EU single market. The EU should pursue a genuine single market, and treat it as a common asset of all its citizens, economic operators and member states. The economic case to be made on behalf of the genuine single market is powerful and even more so due to the findings of recent empirical economic research. However, only the genuine single market can realise the expectations of such large gains. Weak, ‘feasible' action plans cannot! The strategy is based, first of all, on a clear design of the genuine single market and subsequently concentrates on ‘what it takes'. Ten types of actions sum up ‘what it takes': five at the EU level, four at the EU-member state interface, and finally, the realisation of legitimacy and acceptance.This report was contributed to the High-Level Group for the Single Market Strategy of the European Parliament, of which the author was a member. Its publication coincides with the publication of the report “A strategy for completing the Single Market: The trillion euro bonus” by the High Level Panel in a special meeting of the European Parliament's IMCO Committee on 14 January 2016.The paper was prepared at the request of the Impact Assessment Unit of the Directorate for Impact Assessment and European Added Value, within the Directorate General for Parliamentary Research Services (DG EPRS) of the General Secretariat of the European Parliament. It will also be published by the European Parliament as a study under no. PE558.772 and is republished here by CEPS with the kind permission of the European Parliament