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At the end of January 2026, the European Commission adopted the “Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report-2026”, the sixth in an annual series, evaluating the functioning of the EU-wide Single Market and assessing the conditions for businesses to innovate, for national economies to grow and for the governance systems to compete while delivering sustainability for citizens and corporate community.
Key report’s indicators
The report draws on 29 key performance indicators, covering areas such as market integration and barriers, electricity prices and investment trends, as well as identifying priority areas for most effective decisions and action.
Thus, the report shows that six indicators have decreased, six others have improved, and 15 remain broadly unchanged; two indicators are new.
The indicators that have shown some improvements between 2025-26 reports in the following fields: – recognition of skills and qualifications needed for EU citizens to exercise their profession in other EU states; – the EU market surveillance, measured by product investigations carried out by market surveillance authorities; – the share of companies in the EU using artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data analytics; – the increased volumes of InvestEU program’s investments supporting the industrial transition; – the share of renewable energy generation with respect to total energy consumption; and – the annually-added capacity to generate renewable electricity.
Note. The Report can de downloaded from: https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/publications/2026-annual-single-market-and-competitiveness-report_en
Among the indicators that have worsened are: – the share of EU GDP represented by trade among the EU member states; – the share of transposed EU Single Market Directives for which infringement proceedings were launched; – the average time needed to draft standards; labour shortages in occupations requiring specific skills for the green transition; – the school performance of 15-year-olds measured by PISA scores; and – private investment, as a share of GDP.
Some of the indicators that have stayed stable include: labour productivity (measured in GDP per hour worked); ease of regulatory compliance (measured by business’ surveys); private and public expenditure in research and development as a share of GDP; number of patent applications; venture capital investment as share of GDP; domestic clean tech manufacturing capacity.
New indicators and perspectives
Also, the Commission introduced in the 2026 report a new indicator to track simplification efforts. This indicator shows that the projected administrative savings from the Commission’s adopted omnibus and other simplification proposals amount to around €15 billion.
Besides, there is an additional new indicator tracking the share of single market administrative procedures that are fully digital.
The report further outlines the areas in which the Commission and other EU institutions will target its governing efforts to remove barriers in the Single Market: e.g. these efforts will focus on tackling late payments and obstacles to key services related to the green transition.
The Commission will address these and other “barriers’ issues” through dialogue with the member states and, where necessary, through the infringement proceedings. In order to make the benefits to citizens and businesses behind these enforcement actions are clearer, the Commission will publish clear explanations regarding the objectives pursued and the results achieved.
Finally, the report is complemented by the new-2026 edition of the Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard; the documents accompanying the report include an overview of the implementation of the Competitiveness Compass, the Clean Industrial Deal, and the Single Market Strategy; as well as the Annual Report of the Single Market Enforcement Task Force.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_252
More information in the following Commission’s websites: – 2026 Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report; – Staff Working Document with annexes that accompanying the 2026 Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report (KPIs; Implementation tables; Overview of resilience measures by selected global players); – 2026 interactive online Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard: The Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard | Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard; – 2024-2025 Annual Report of the Single Market Enforcement Task Force.
Financial aspects in competitiveness
Advancing European competitiveness agenda is a key priority of the European Commission, as reinforcing economic growth is essential to secure regional security and independence. Hence, the Commission invited the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, to attend the upcoming seminar of the College of Commissioners, dedicated to Europe’s competitiveness agenda.
The seminar is taking place on 4th February 2026 and intends to provide an opportunity for an in-depth strategic discussion on strengthening the European Union’s competitive position in a rapidly evolving global context.
The exchanges among the College of Commissioners will contribute to the preparations for the informal retreat of EU leaders of 12th February 2026 on strengthening the EU single market in a new geo-economic context, to which President von der Leyen will participate.
In line with the recommendations of the Draghi report in 2024, the Commission has placed competitiveness and decarbonisation at the heart of the present political priorities and initiatives of the College mandate. Among other initiatives, the Commission has put forward the Clean Industrial Deal and a strong simplification agenda, with 10 omnibus packages proposed, which maintain EU-wide growth standards, while bringing along possible savings of about €12 billion every year for the European companies.
The Commission has also presented startup and scale-up strategies, a competitiveness fund and has doubled down on investments in innovation, proposing to double the budget of Horizon Europe and launching the Choose Europe program.
Going forward, the Commission will continue its work on financial services, with the launch of the Savings and Investment Union, and on reducing the remaining barriers in the single market, also by proposing a 28th regime, and the EU Inc. program.
At the same time, the EU-wide international trade agenda forces the Commission building strong ties with a network of trade agreements with 78 countries – the largest in the world; it allows for trade diversification and finally provides basic conditions for more independent and secure European Union.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_273
thanks for this