Economic benefits

• Over the last 15 years the Single Market has increased the EU's prosperity by 2.15% of GDP. In 2006 alone this meant an overall increase of €240 billion - or €518 for every EU citizen - compared to a situation without the Single Market.
• 2.75 million extra jobs have been created over the period 1992-2006 as a result of the Single Market.
• The Single Market has enhanced the ability of EU firms to compete in global markets.
• EU exports to third countries have increased from 6.9% of EU GDP in 1992 to 11.2% in 2001.
• The Single Market has made Europe a much more attractive location for foreign investors. New inflows of foreign direct investment into the European Union have more than doubled as a percentage of GDP.

Benefits for citizens/consumers

• EU citizens can travel across most of the EU without carrying a passport and without being stopped for checks at the borders. Shoppers have full consumer rights when shopping outside their country and there are no limits on what they can buy and take with them, as long as the products purchased are for personal use.
• Less bureaucracy for people wishing to study, work or retire in another EU country. more than 15 million EU citizens have moved to other EU countries to work or to enjoy their retirement, benefiting from the transferability of social benefit, while 1.5 million young people have completed part of their studies in another Member State with the help of the Erasmus programme. Educational diplomas and professional qualifications are mutually recognised by the EU countries, making it easier for people to move to where the jobs are. Expatriate citizens enjoy proper welfare protection and can vote and stand for office wherever they live in the EU.
• Wider choice for consumers: the range of products and services on sale across the EU is wider than ever and in most cases prices are easily compared thanks to the euro. 73% of EU citizens think the Single Market has contributed positively to the range of products on offer, while the establishment of common standards has led to safer and environmentally friendlier products, such as food, cars and medicines.
• More advantageous prices: manufacturers and service providers have to keep prices down because they are selling into a single competitive market of 480 million people.
• Phone calls, internet access and air travel have all become cheaper. Technology combined with Single Market liberalisation means, for example, that prices charged for phone calls have been reduced by 40% over the period 2000-2006. The prices of budget airfares have also fallen significantly: a recent study estimates that the price of promotional fares fell by 41 % between 1992 and 2000.
• With more financial integration and liberalisation of capital movements within the EU, citizens can benefit from a wider range of products, better quality, lower prices and more and better opportunities to invest their savings, as well as diversify their portfolio and seek the most optimum return in an integrated European financial market.
• More competition in public procurement means better value and higher quality services for the taxpayer. For example, the price of railway rolling stock has dropped, with studies pointing at savings from 10% to 30%. As a result of more open and competitive public procurement rules, governments have more money to spend on priorities such as health and education.

Benefits for business

• Trade within the EU has risen by 30% since 1992. The absence of border bureaucracy has cut delivery times and reduced costs. Before the frontiers came down, the tax system alone required 60 million customs clearance documents annually: these are no longer needed.
• The mutual recognition principle means that in most cases companies can do business across the EU by complying with the rules in their home Member State.
• In many cases, rather than adding to red tape, Single Market rules often replace a large number of complex and different national laws with a single framework, reducing compliance costs for businesses, who pass those savings on to consumers. It has also become easier to start or buy a business: the average cost for setting up a new company in the former EU-15 has fallen from €813 in 2002 to €554 in 2007, and the time needed to register a company administratively was reduced from 24 days in 2002 to about 12 days currently.
• New export markets have been opened up to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who previously would have been prevented from exporting by the costs and difficulties involved.
• Companies are now able to bid for contracts to supply goods and services to public authorities in other Member States, thanks to the opening up of public procurement.
• Capital – the investment that businesses need to start and grow – flows easily within the Single Market, sustaining companies and generating jobs.
• SMEs have benefited from lower electricity costs in those Member States where this segment of the market has been opened up to competition.
• Any business in the EU can benefit from the huge potential market that is the European Union: 27 countries with over 480 million potential customers.

But… even more benefits are possible if we further develop the Single Market by

• Removing remaining obstacles to trade, particularly in the field of services and financial markets. Opening these markets would create new opportunities for growth, investment and jobs and bring benefits to consumers in terms of more choice and lower prices. The resulting competition should also strengthen the EU’s productivity growth, which is lagging far behind that of its global competitors.
• Improving the implementation of existing rules. Member States must take greater ownership of the Single Market and work directly together with each other and with the Commission to sort out free movement problems pragmatically without waiting for lengthy legal proceedings before the European Court of Justice.
• Compliance with procurement rules at all levels of government should be made a priority. At present, only 16% of all EU procurement is publicly advertised and therefore open to cross-border bidding.
• More affordable, legally secure and well-enforced patenting and other intellectual and industrial property right protection are necessary to help us attract and keep research and innovation in Europe. The aim is to create a Single Market in knowledge and stimulate the demand side for “content”.

These are just some examples of the policies we are trying to pursue in order to extend and deepen the Single Market. You can return to the home page and explore the different sections of our website to have a more complete view of the challenges that lie ahead and a clearer picture of how each of these policies could benefit you.