Study - Reducing Costs and Barriers for Businesses in the Single Market - PE 578.966 - Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

The study points that reducing business costs and regulatory and market barriers is necessary to complete the Single Market. However, monitoring of barriers and costs in the EU is piecemeal and unsystematic, quantification and clear identification of barriers and costs is lacking, which makes prioritisation of policy actions difficult. Resulting costs of slow reform process and vague initiatives with uncertain time horizons in the area of e-commerce alone amount to €748 billion. As indicated by examples of Estonia and South Korea, ICT and e-government can be particularly efficient in reducing these costs and barriers. The study was prepared for Policy Department A at the request of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee.