The European Commission (EC) has adopted three initiatives aiming at making the European Union (EU) single market work better for citizens and businesses.

The three main initiatives adopted by the EC from 2 May to improve the single market are;

  • A single digital gateway providing key administrative procedures and assistance services online. According to the EC this could help companies save € 11bn per year. In a statement the EC said the initiative will benefit those moving to or doing business in another EU country and will incentivise member states to adopt e-government strategies to offer modern and efficient public service.
  • A single market information tool will allow the EC to source defined and readily available data in targeted cases of serious difficulties with the application of EU single market legislation. This could prove valuable, for example, to collect information on suspected geo-blocking practices, to corroborate information on public tenders, or to obtain data on the pricing and underlying costs of cross-border parcel delivery. Such requests would be a measure of last resort and the information would be handled subject to strict confidentiality requirements, according to the EC.
  • A SOLVIT action plan. SOLVIT is a free service providing solutions for difficulties with public administrations, while moving or doing business cross-border in the EU. The action plan aims at making the service easily accessible and expand its data collection so that evidence from these cases can be used to improve the function of the single market.