European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers that the bloc must tear down remaining barriers in its internal market to compete in the current geopolitical climate.
"We must finish what we started. We must remove the barriers that still persist in our internal market," von der Leyen told MEPs gathered in plenary session on Wednesday. "We must make it much easier to scale up across Europe. This is the basic promise of the single market and it must be fulfilled."
Von der Leyen singled out the practice of so-called "gold plating" — whereby member states layer unnecessary complexity onto EU rules — as a key obstacle to business growth across the bloc.
The Commission president also pledged to make the single market "digital by design," pointing to EU initiatives in semiconductors, cloud infrastructure and AI development.
On the climate agenda, she argued that achieving the EU's environmental and circular economy targets requires a single market that rewards clean innovation and removes barriers to trade in low-carbon goods and services.
Von der Leyen touched on supply chain resilience too, noting that the EU is pushing new trade deals — with a Mexico agreement expected to be signed later this week.
She rounded off by acknowledging that the benefits of the single market must reach every region and every citizen, before warning against complacency.
"The single market is one of Europe's great success stories. But success is not something we inherit from previous generations. It requires constant work, vision and political will," she said.
