GFS LinkedIn
GFS Facebook
GFS Twitter
GFS RSS feed

Monti “pessimistic” about future of the single market

Tuesday 13 July 2010 - by Tim Gieles

Former European Commissioner Mario Monti says the single market is “more unpopular than ever” and there is a real danger that it will fail.

Speaking at two conferences in Brussels last month, Monti said that Europe is suffering from “integration fatigue, market fatigue and reform fatigue”.

Monti said integration fatigue is the decreasing enthusiasm for more integration in Europe, while market fatigue can be described as a lack of confidence in the market. Reform fatigue is the lack of interest in reforming the single market. He said the financial crisis has enhanced this fatigue.

He said: “What makes the single market suffer most is that it takes for example, 30 years to agree on patents. That is due to the Council mainly.

“Also, the election of smaller parties means the larger centre right and left parties begin to feel the pinch of electoral competition and feel forced to take less adamant pro-European positions. So this pro-Europeanism is evaporating. I’m very pessimistic about it. A stronger single market will not fall from heaven.”



He added: “What we cannot afford is that the single market is perceived as a straightjacket which prevents national governments from pursuing their social objectives.”

In October 2009, Monti was invited by European Commission President Barroso to prepare a report on the re-launch of the single market. Originally established in 1992, the single market is one of the original core ideas behind the European project, but has never been fully completed and there are many gaps and bottlenecks that hinder its proper functioning.

The Monti Report was released and presented to the Commission President Barroso and to the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy on 10 May 2010. Its aim is to give new political impetus to the single market, by setting out a comprehensive strategy that will make such a re-launch a political, economical and social success.

The Report identifies three challenges that the single market faces today: the erosion of the political and social support for market integration in Europe; uneven policy development for an effective and sustainable single market; and a sense of complacency as if the single market was already complete.


Article pages: |   1  |  2  |



WHAT DO YOU THINK?
 
Name:
   
Email:
   
Comment:
   
Post as Anonymous
  Display name
   
Please, enter security code
   
 

No comments yet.
INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
What corruption really costs
Heidi Lawson, partner at Chadbourne & Parke LLP, looks at the impact of compliance and corruption on a company's value.

STRAW POLL

Will markets in 2012 have a tougher time than 2011?

Yes

No

Don't know

View results

FIND A REGION world regions