Highlights - Presentation of the 2018 Single Market Scoreboard - Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

During its presentation, the European Commission (EC) gave an overview of the main conclusions of the “Single Market Scoreboard 2018”, which was published by the EC on July 2019. The EC noted that the 2018 Scoreboard shows that, despite further expansion of trade in goods and services, the situation has worsened in certain policy areas since 2017. EU countries improved the functioning of some single market tools, such as the Your Europe portal and the Internal Market Information System (IMI).

However, countries received more red cards on a number of policy areas than last year. For instance, on the fairness of public procurement systems and the recognition of professional qualifications. The same happened with regard to the cooperation in EU pilots. In general, the best performing countries were Portugal, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and Lithuania, while the most red and yellow cards were given to Spain, Italy, Greece and Luxembourg.

The EC concluded by informing members that it is currently seeking feedback on the future development of the Single Market Scoreboard via an online survey in view of possibly upgrading it, inviting members to provide input in this regard. Members voiced their concerns on the slow development of the single market in several areas (e.g. procurement) and urged the EC to improve data gathering that would enable a better understanding of the source of the problem.