Czechia and Sweden want new Commission to focus on the single market

The new European Commission – to be formed after the upcoming EU elections – should finally start focusing on competitiveness and the single market, representatives of the Czech and Swedish administrations and local business agreed at a debate organised by the Europe Unlocked initiative in Prague on Wednesday.

Although European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen devoted a part of her State of the Union speech last autumn to competitiveness, she had not previously focused much on the issue, a Czech top official pointed out.

“So far, the single market has not featured high on the agenda of the European Commission,” the director of European Affairs at the Czech government’s office, Štěpán Černý, said at the debate.

The Unlocked initiative is backed by Swedish trade organisations and has members in other EU countries, including Czechia.

For Czechia – a heavily industrialised country with an exporting economy – a single market and competitiveness in Europe are crucial. The country hopes the next European Commission will take the topic more seriously.

“We are in a unique position and have time to formulate the ideas to be put forward by the next European Commission,” said Černý, adding that it is time for Czechia and its like-minded partners to be heard.

“In past years, competitiveness was considered a bad word by some member states,” the Czech official pointed out.

Czechia’s emphasis on competitiveness is also shared by Sweden.

“Internal market and trade is essential,” Swedish state secretary for EU affairs Christian Danielsson said, adding that the EU is losing to the US in terms of competitiveness.

Pressure on competitiveness and the single market is the theme of the new Europe Unlocked initiative, which is backed by Swedish trade organisations and has members in other EU countries, including Czechia. According to Anna Stellinger from the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, the aim of the initiative is to send an “SOS – strengthen our single market” signal to the next European Commission.

According to the Czechs, competitiveness must be seen not only in relation to the EU and the rest of the world but internally as well.

Czechia is one of the critics of the loosened state aid, which allows stronger economies like Germany to support their own companies significantly, which then causes difficulties for competing companies in countries that do not have such a large budget as Germany.

(Aneta Zachová | Euractiv.cz)

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