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2025 sees EU step up efforts for a simpler and more competitive Single Market

13 March 2026 | 2 minutes read

In March 2026, the European Commission published its general report on the activities of the European Union: The EU in 2025(opens in a new tab).

In 2025, Competitiveness remained – and indeed in many ways consolidated – its place at the top of the EU’s political agenda, despite turbulent global events and competing priorities:

  • In February 2025, the European Commission published its competitiveness compass(opens in a new tab).
  • In May 2025, the European Commission published a Single Market strategy(opens in a new tab).
  • In July 2025, the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs committee requested an in-depth analysis of potential drivers and a rationale for a possible “28th Regime(opens in a new tab)” as proposed in the Letta Report.
  • In September 2025, President von der Leyen used her 2025 State of the EU speech(opens in a new tab) to emphasise the EU’s commitment to digital transformation and the completion of the EU Single Market.
  • On 23 October 2025, the European Council stressed(opens in a new tab) the importance of simplification as part of Europe’s competitiveness agenda by noting “the urgent need to advance an ambitious and horizontally-driven simplification and better regulation agenda at all levels – EU, national and regional – and in all areas in order to ensure Europe’s competitiveness, without undermining predictability, policy goals, high standards and the integrity of the Single Market.”

Only “Once-Only” makes Europe truly competitive

Chapter 2 of ‘The EU in 2025’ highlights EU efforts to cut red tape, complete the Single Market and reduce administrative burdens as key areas where the EU has sought to make progress.

The Once-Only Technical System will help the EU deliver on each of these points to an even greater degree. EU Member States are currently implementing the Once-Only Technical System. This System creates a seamless cross-border experience for both citizens and businesses by removing the burden of manually searching for, identifying, and submitting official data to complete administrative procedures.

With ‘Once-Only’, individuals and businesses can simply give their explicit request for the secure exchange of data directly between public authorities on behalf of the individual via an existing e-government website. This includes evidences like the diplomas, certificates and attestations needed when moving to, or starting to do business in, other EU countries.

The Once-Only Technical System makes the Single Market truly innovative and helps European businesses use the Single Market to scale.

2025 saw significant steps towards a competitive ‘Once-Only’ Single Market

By the end of 2025, 21 Member States were already listed as “production ready”, with varying levels of technical maturity. This means they have set up their national OOTS infrastructures to allow for the secure exchange of evidence between their national authorities. For these countries, it is now essential to connect the competent authorities who request or issue the evidence needed (when registering a car or applying to study in another country) to the OOTS.

The 2025 OOTS Projectathon(opens in a new tab) (11-16 June) was the sixth large-scale testing event to date helping EU Member States consolidate the core infrastructure of the Once-Only Technical System.

During 2025, events in Lithuania(opens in a new tab) (3-4 April), Portugal(opens in a new tab) (25-26 September) and Croatia(opens in a new tab) (27-28 November) brought together the national competent authorities responsible for cross-border administrative procedures. At these events, competent authorities – from the host country, its region, and across Europe – learned how to connect to the OOTS and offer services using the System.

In the second half of 2025 the first Once-Only enabled procedures went live in Finland(opens in a new tab), Lithuania(opens in a new tab) and Italy(opens in a new tab). Meanwhile, the OOTS implementation teams in Finland(opens in a new tab), Lithuania(opens in a new tab), Spain(opens in a new tab) and Croatia(opens in a new tab) all took the time to share their “Once-Only” journey so far, and offer insights into their future plans.

All this was in addition to technical updates, evidence types being uploaded to the Evidence Explorer tool(opens in a new tab) and much more.

Building on all these achievements, 2026 therefore stands to be the year where Europe truly goes “Once-Only”.

To learn more about what the EU achieved in 2025, download The EU in 2025(opens in a new tab). To learn more about the Once-Only Technical System, visit the Once-Only hub(opens in a new tab).