Brussels Wants a Bureaucracy-Free Single Market. Will the Capitals Follow?​

Brussels is asking Europe to cut its well-known red tape and build a true Single Market—one where good ideas can quickly get funding and turn into global successes. In its new plan, the European Commission promises to scrap the ten worst barriers inside the EU, shift most paperwork online, and give fast-growing mid-size companies the same advantages enjoyed by small firms. The dream is big: merge 27 different rulebooks into a single launchpad for the next Spotify or BioNTech.
Yet there’s an awkward truth: Brussels helped write many of the complex rules it now wants to remove. Business leaders across the EU wonder whether the author of today’s forms can really be the one to tear them up tomorrow.

On 21 May 2025 the European Commission unveiled its new Single-Market Strategy—a package that promises to kill the “terrible ten” barriers inside the EU, digitalise compliance and slice red tape for SMEs by 35 % before 2029.

​Brussels believes that a more navigable home market will make Europe the default location for investment. Yet achieving that goal is harder than writing a Communication. From fragmented regulation to tariff wars that tempt companies to friend-shore in Asia, Europe’s competitive landscape is strewn with obstacles.

The Commission is right that the EU’s 450 million-consumer market is one of the world’s great commercial assets. The problem is fragmentation. Internal barriers act like tariffs of 44 % on goods and 110 % on services, according to IMF estimates quoted by Reuters.

For instance, rules on packaging, construction permits or professional qualifications, etc. often change….

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