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EU ignoring urgency of single market

Thursday 11 November 2010 - by Nicola York

Former European Commissioner Professor Mario Monti has slammed the timetable for the implementation of the single market act saying it is far too slow and is now a "very urgent matter".

Speaking at the first public hearing of the European Commission's single market act proposals in the European Parliament this week, Monti who conducted a six-month consultation on behalf of the Commission earlier this year, said he was "surprised" at the plan to debate the proposals for four months.

He said: "I had thought that the act could go on to legislation right away. Moving the single market ahead is a very urgent matter."

Iin his view, the political vision needed to take the single market forwards will not come from "further rounds of consultations".

Monti said he regretted that EC President José Manuel Barroso had not "taken centre stage" to emphasise how urgent the act is.


Monti regretted that Commission President José Manuel Barroso himself had not "taken centre stage" to underline the act's urgency.



Monti said that "political visibility" is certainly "not yet where it should be" and added that "the single market is not a ship. It is the sea and the wind which allows all the flagships to proceed".

Danish MEP Morten Løkkegaard (ALDE), agreed that "the speed is not ambitious enough" and expressed surprise that the Commission had chosen to present its Single Market Act "in the middle of a Council summit".


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