The EU's single market is based on free movement of goods, services, capital and people. Ex Italian PM and author of a report into the single market, Enrico Letta argues a 5th freedom - encompassing research, education and innovation - is vital for Europe's future prosperity.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I start from a very strong red alarm.
00:06The big red alarm is the fact that the gap is growing with the US.
00:11The single market as it is today, it is not enough,
00:14because it was conceived for a world that is no more there.
00:18Six months, 65 cities, 400 meetings and one high-level report later,
00:23Enrico Letta's verdict on the single market is in,
00:27and it's a wake-up call for Europe.
00:31Hello and welcome to Business Planet from Brussels,
00:34where I've come to interview the report author,
00:37the former Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta.
00:42The single market was founded in 1993.
00:45It's just 31 years ago, but the world is almost unrecognisable.
00:50When Jacques Delors launched the single market,
00:53the Soviet Union was there, Germany wasn't reunified,
00:57China and India together were 4% of world GDP.
01:02The big of today and tomorrow has to be bigger,
01:05because the dimension of China, of the US, the BRICS, has completely changed.
01:10Three sectors, energy, financial services and telecoms,
01:14are not part of the single market,
01:16and Letta believes fragmentation in these sectors damages Europe's competitiveness.
01:22We are having 100 telecom operators in Europe, fragmented.
01:28In each country, 3, 4, 5 operators.
01:31In the US, there are 3.
01:33In China, each operator has more than 467 million clients.
01:40Worse still is the lack of integration in financial services.
01:45Our 27 financial markets are not enough integrated,
01:50not enough attractive, they are too small,
01:54and the American market is having a sort of pull effect.
01:58He suggests creating a savings and investment union,
02:02what he describes as a pillar of private money,
02:05that combined with public funds will pay for Europe's flagship net zero policies.
02:10The financing is a divisive subject.
02:13If we continue not answering the question how to finance the transition,
02:18farmers will be the first of a long sequence of people protesting.
02:22Next one will be the workers in the automotive industry.
02:26Then you will have other workers, other business people, other citizens.
02:31Many entrepreneurs say the single market isn't working for them.
02:35While big companies have the money and staff to operate in countries with different legal regimes,
02:41smaller companies don't.
02:43Letta aims to simplify this.
02:45So the idea, starting from the legal environment,
02:48is to create a sort of master key, a sort of passpartout.
02:53One legal system, a 28th legal system,
03:00that is a sort of another European country,
03:03a virtual European country, with his own system, legal system.
03:10I asked the head of small tech firm's lobby, Digital SME, if he thought this would help.
03:16I think it's a brilliant idea.
03:18If I have to set up a company, I will have to set it up in my country,
03:22let's say I'm Italian, I will set it up in Italy.
03:24But if I want to do business in another country, let's say France, Poland or elsewhere,
03:29I have to set up another company in these countries.
03:32So this is a complete mess.
03:35The four pillars of the European single market are freedom of movement for goods, services, capital and people.
03:41Letta acknowledges this is a very 20th century view and says a fifth freedom,
03:47for innovation, research and education, is desperately needed.
03:53Having meetings around Europe, many young people start up telling me that we want to go to the US.
04:01Europe is not a place where we can develop our ideas.
04:06One example in medical research, allowing free access to articles and their data,
04:12is already helping accelerate European health breakthroughs.
04:16To find out more, I went to French public research body INSURM.
04:31Research centres like this are vital to allow Europe to innovate and compete.
04:36And a next generation single market should allow this sector and others to fulfil their potential.
04:42See you next time on Business Planet.
05:00Business Planet.
Recommended
CNN Under Fire After Freed Syrian Prisoner Revealed to Be Assad Regime Torturer, Musk Reacts
Oneindia
Sakharov laureate González promises return to Venezuela 'by land, air or sea'
euronews (in English)