On 13 September, President Ursula von der Leyen delivered the final State of the Union address of this mandate. She highlighted several achievements of her Commission while underlining the major challenges the EU is facing today. She stressed the importance of the competitiveness of our industry and SMEs by supporting their green and digital transition, facilitating the business cases, and ensuring fair competition with third countries. The President explicitly mentioned some of DG GROW's latest actions, such as the Net Zero Industry Act, the Raw Materials Act and the Industrial Strategy built around thriving industrial ecosystems. In terms of upcoming projects, the President highlighted a series of Clean Transition Dialogues that will be held with industry and a European Wind Power package that the Commission will put forward. This will fast-track permitting further, improve auction systems across the EU, and focus on skills, access to finance and stable supply chains. Finally, the President announced that she has asked Mario Draghi to prepare a report on the future of European competitiveness.

The SME Relief package, put forward on 12 September, brings new measures that will provide short-term relief, boost SMEs' long-term competitiveness, and strengthen fairness in the business environment across the Single Market. As part of these measures, the Commission also published new proposals for a Regulation on late payments in commercial transactions and a Directive establishing a Head Office Tax System for SMEs. Additional initiatives aim at further boosting SMEs' access to finance, improving the business environment and supporting SMEs' growth into mid-caps to unleash their full economic potential.

The Single Digital Gateway (SDG) is an ambitious EU eGovernment initiative launched in 2020. The purpose of the SDG is to help Member States digitalise their public administrations, while helping businesses and citizens to better understand and use their rights and the opportunities offered by the Single Market. The report provides an assessment of how the SDG functions today and describes its next phases. It highlights a very promising start and what will be done to deepen its impact, including the activation of fully-online administrative procedures in 21 key areas that will speed up, among others, cross-border business operations, such as starting, running and closing a business. With 100 million overall visits in 2021 and 2022 as well as 1.2 million business cases taken on, Your Europe simplifies daily operations and contributes to the success of your business. 

In this latest episode of Business Planet, we hear what late payments can mean for businesses, and ask how the EU can help protect vulnerable entrepreneurs.

The Single Market Tour, one of the main activities of the campaign celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Single Market, kicked off on 1-2 September in Italy and continued its journey in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. The next stops of the Single Market Tour will be in Spain, Portugal and France. This will be followed by many other stops in 2024. Discover here the programme and the picture gallery for Trieste - Italy; Szeged – Hungary; Timisoara – Romania; Brasov - Romania; Plovdiv and Sofia - Bulgaria.

The Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) allows the EU to remain open to trade and investment, while ensuring a level playing field for all companies operating in the Single Market. The Implementing Regulation provides detailed rules on the procedures for notifications to the European Commission of concentrations in public procurement procedures.

On 5 September, the Commission adopted a proposal to facilitate the activities of cross-border associations in the EU. The proposal introduces an additional legal form of a European cross-border association (ECBA) in Member States’ national legal systems, which is specifically designed for cross-border purposes. It will improve the functioning of the Single Market by removing legal and administrative barriers for non-profit associations that wish to operate across border in the EU, thus promoting the role non-profit associations play in generating economic and societal value. An estimated 3.8 million of non-profit associations are active in the EU and they contribute 2.9% to the EU GDP. The new proposal will bring cost savings of up to EUR 770 million per year for the over 300,000 non-profit associations currently active cross-border.

To improve the free movement of goods within the European Union, Product Contact Points (PCPs) have been set up in the Member States. The purpose of these Product Contact Points is to facilitate access to the national market for economic operators of other Member States. PCPs just concluded successfully a 2-year programme, initiated at the beginning of 2022 at the request of the European Union Product Compliance Network (EUPCN), aiming to strengthen their expertise and address the growing need for product-specific market surveillance information in several sectors.

Since the implementation of the eInvoicing Directive in April 2020, all public administrations across the EU comply with the European Standard on eInvoicing. The eInvocing Directive was adopted to reduce trade barriers arising from different national legal requirements and technical standards for electronic invoicing. Discover the 2023 eInvoicing Country Factsheets providing information about eInvoicing policies, digital reporting requirements, and much more in each  Member State.

Concession markets in the EU are worth an average of €60 billion per year, representing around 12% of overall public procurement in Europe. The total number of concessions awarded in the EU has roughly doubled since the transposition deadline of the Concessions Directive and the number of concessions awarded to SMEs increased from 22.4% in 2016 to 31.6% in 2021. Four EU countries account for up to 85% of the total increase of concession awards. The sectors with the largest number of concession awards since 2016 are: hotel, restaurant and retail trade services, recreational, cultural and sporting services, and construction works. The report is accompanied by a Commission staff working document containing detailed legal and data analysis, based on in-house analysis and on an external study on the implementation of the concessions directive.

'Decomposition of produce price inflation in the euro area' is an indicator that provides a measure of the relative importance of supply and demand factors in determining the inflationary pressure in the euro area. It refers to producer prices in industry, and is updated each quarter. Based on the methodology developed by DG GROW's Chief Economist team (2022), it combines data extracted by the Joint Harmonised EU Programme of Business and Consumer Surveys and Eurostat.

Registrations for the EU Industry Days are still open, and we’re happy to announce that the event will also be web-streamed! The EU Industry Days, organised with the support of the Spanish Presidency and taking place at the Trade Fairs and Congress Centre of Málaga, are Europe’s flagship annual event focusing on key industrial policy discussions, connecting industrial frontrunners, and boosting the knowledge base of European industry. Seize this opportunity to discuss the future of EU industry and connect with hundreds of other industry representatives.

The EU FINANCE DAYS are organised by the European Commission and implementing partners to present new financial and support programmes such as InvestEU, the Single Market Programme and the European Innovation Council to businesses and relevant stakeholders. Join us in person or online at the next EU FINANCE DAYS in Helsinki. Registrations are open !

Webinar organised by FAST ( Federazione delle associazioni scientifiche e tecniche) on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Single Market and the 15th Anniversary of the Enterprise Europe Network. On June 1, the Unitary Patent came into force, providing unitary protection to the 17 countries that have ratified it. What's new and benefits for businesses? What are the potential risks? Together with experts from European institutions and professionals, the webinar aims to offer an in-depth analysis on these issues. Registrations are open !

Discover future industry trends, learn from EU manufacturing experts & see the latest cutting-edge tech at Pollutec. Registrations are open !

DG GROW's Chief Economist team is organising a high-level policy panel during this year's edition of the Annual Research Conference in Brussels. How can we maximise the leverage effect of the SM to improve our productivity growth and economic performance? What Institutional designs foster the structural transformation of the EU economy to ensure long-term sustainable competitiveness and increase our economic resilience? Registrations are open !

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