Towards a Simpler Single Market 10 June 2025 Sparks Brussels
The event was a great success, discover the pictures in our gallery!
Brought to you by the European Commission, under the patronage of the 2025 Polish Council Presidency
In collaboration with Your Europe and the Once-Only Technical System
Download the event’s position paper on the Single Market Strategy
This event explored how to deliver real world simplification via effective digitalisation, and stronger synergies across EU initiatives. Our thoughts on the Single Market Strategy, and how the Single Digital Gateway can contribute to more simplification, synergies and digitalisation
Download the event’s Key Takeaways
Find out what the high-level stakeholders who took part in the panels and keynotes of “Towards a Simpler Single Market” had to say about simplification, digitalisation, and their power to transform the Single Market and unlock European competitiveness.
Get the unique perspective of both regulators and implementers on these crucial topics.
Simplification:
A vision for the SDG 2.0
- Equip businesses and citizens with the tools they need to perform tasks and transactions.
- Reduce the administrative burden for businesses by having quick access to the data they need.
- Support public administrations to share data across borders, to limit citizens having to fill the same forms again and again.
Solving the admin and regulatory burden holding back Europe
Citizens and businesses face significant challenges moving and working within the Single Market, whether it is studying abroad or scaling up a business across borders.
Regulatory requirements create fragmented evidence systems, with data scattered across countless registries and paper documents.
These complex systems hamper efficient transactions, trust, and economic progress. The same evidence that allows SMEs to apply for a business license, or citizens to retrieve their credit score to apply for a loan.
Simplification is the solution. To remain competitive, we must shift from a document-based to a data-driven paradigm, that will remove unnecessary hurdles and streamline access to data while maintaining essential regulatory safeguards.
Watch the after
movie
Did you miss out on the event? You can get a glimpse of the big day by watching the “Towards a Simpler Single Market” after movie.
Get a first-hand look at the high-level panels and keynote speakers plus the many motivated guests — everyone contributed enormously to the stimulating discussion on what simplification can mean for the Single Market.
A Single Market where we do
things Only-Once, and we do
them right. Enabling innovation
in Europe once again.
- Welcome & Walking lunch13:00
-
Opening Address & Keynote
By Director-General of DG GROW Kerstin Jorna14:00 -
Panel 1
Beyond the ribbon: when regulators cut red tape Moderated by Deputy Director-General of DG DIGIT, Philippe Van Damme14:15 -
« Eureka » Pitch contest
Who has the best administrative simplification story for the Once-Only Technical System (OOTS)? By EU Member State teams15:15 - Networking coffee break15:30
-
Keynote
A blueprint for a data-driven Single Market By Andreas Rahlf Hauptmann, Deputy Director-General of the Danish Business Authority16:00 -
Panel 2
Making it real: implementing simplification Moderated by Mario Campolargo, former Portugese Former Secretary of State for Digitalisation16:15 - Closing address17:15
- « Eureka » Awards ceremony17:30
- Networking cocktail17:45
A tailor-made agenda for the event.
After official introduction remarks from the European Commission, you will be able to enjoy a series of Keynotes and Panels covering the current state of play of the Single Market and how its vision for Simplification and administrative burden reduction will help businesses and citizens across Europe.
Get inspired by our speakers and panellists.
Kerstin Jorna
Director-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW)
Jack Hamande
Director-General Simplification & Digital Transformation - Belgian Federal Public Service Policy and Support (BOSA)
Mario Campolargo
Former Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Administrative Modernisation - Government of Portugal (2022-2024)
Anna Cavazzini
Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, Chair of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO)
And many more...
Practical information
When?
10 June, 2025 Starting at 13:00 until 19:00
For who?
Professionals Participation is open to professionals responsible for developing, influencing, and managing implementation of IT projects for public, private, and academic sectors at local, regional, national, and pan-European institutional levels.
How much?
Free No fees are charged to participate in this event.
The EU Competitiveness Compass
The European Commission has introduced the Competitiveness Compass, a strategic framework guiding Europe's efforts to become a leader in future technologies, services, and clean products, while achieving climate neutrality. The initiative addresses Europe's lag in productivity growth and outlines a detailed plan to address these issues, including reducing the admin burden on businesses so they can instead focus on driving innovation in Europe.
Key Areas for Action
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Innovation
Close the innovation gap by fostering start-ups, promoting industrial leadership in high-growth sectors, and encouraging technology diffusion.
Initiatives include:
- 'AI Gigafactories'
- Action plans for advanced materials, quantum, biotech, robotics, and space technologies
- Dedicated EU Start-up and Scale-up Strategy
-
Decarbonisation
Address high energy prices and facilitate access to clean, affordable energy.
The Clean Industrial Deal and Affordable Energy Action Plan aim to make the EU an attractive location for manufacturing and promote clean tech and circular business models.
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Security and Reducing Dependencies
Diversify and strengthen supply chains through Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships.
Review Public Procurement rules to introduce European preferences for critical sectors and technologies.
Five Horizontal Enablers
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Simplification
Reduce regulatory and administrative burdens, simplify access to EU funds, and set targets for cutting administrative burdens for firms and SMEs.
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Lowering Barriers to the Single Market
Modernise the governance framework, remove intra-EU barriers, and make standard-setting processes faster and more accessible.
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Financing Competitiveness
Create a European Savings and Investments Union to turn savings into investments and streamline access to EU funds.
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Promoting Skills and Quality Jobs
Focus on investment in skills, lifelong learning, and attracting qualified talent to match labour market demands.
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Better Coordination of Policies
Introduce a Competitiveness Coordination Tool to ensure implementation of shared EU policy objectives and identify cross-border projects of European interest.
The Competitiveness Compass aims to turn recommendations into actionable steps, with a focus on speed and unity to regain Europe's competitiveness on the global stage.
Digital tools for a Simpler Single Market
- And many more
The Single Digital Gateway Regulation.
In 2018, the Single Digital Gateway Regulation set out to make it easier for businesses and citizens to find the right information online to do business or move, study, work, retire or in another EU country – all by using the Your Europe portal.
A joint effort from the European Commission and Member States
The Single Digital Gateway initiative called for EU Member States to ensure that a range of important cross-border administrative procedures are provided fully online. It also called on the Commission and Member States to establish a system allowing for the automated and cross-border exchange of evidence (the documents or data needed for these procedures), known as the Once-Only Technical System.
Complementing the Your Europe portal
Alongside the Your Europe portal, the Once-Only Technical System stands as the newest element within the framework of the Single Digital Gateway, dedicated to more efficient public services and the simplification of administrative procedures.
The Once-Only Technical System:
Boosting the EU Single Market by simplifying procedures.
The Once-Only Technical System lets EU public authorities securely exchange official documents and data at the request of citizens and businesses as part of cross-border administrative procedures, e.g., when registering an address or vehicle when moving abroad. This innovative system eliminates the complicated manual search, mapping, and fetching of data between Member State authorities, improving efficiency, making people's lives easier, and reducing the costs of mobility in the Single Market.
