Articles

Within the framework of the EU Green Deal, the Single Market is slowly turning into a tool to fight the climate crisis. In recent years, more and more legislation with regard to a circular economy has become law, enabling the green transition. But we have to do more. We have to fundamentally rethink our narrative of the Single Market, its role in the world and its way of delivering for the people.

The long cycle that began with the creation of the internal market, whose first phase brought opportunities for the social dimension but which ultimately led to global integration, resulting in a long period of anti-social policies, has come to an end. We are now entering into a new period, in which the rules of the internal market are changing in response to the need for environmental sustainability and strategic autonomy. The question now is what place the social dimension will occupy in this new architecture.

There is little reason to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Single Market. We urgently need industrial policies that are truly European. This is essential, particularly in the fields of digital technology and ecological transition, which raises questions of means, in particular. We also need to change the competition policy to encourage consolidation of European companies, instead of fighting it.

The Single Market has been a pillar of the EU since its conception. However, the focus so far has been on how to make it easier for companies to operate across the EU and the European Economic Area. Much more attention needs to be paid to the social and environmental dimensions of the Single Market, and this certainly includes consumers, who are the ultimate beneficiaries of its policies.

While it makes sense to celebrate 30 years of a border-free EU market for goods and services, there is also an urgent need for a critical assessment. This should start with discussing the limits of the Single Market, namely which areas of our societies should be covered by Single Market rules and which should not.

The EU Single Market needs profound reform. We must place reuse, refill and repair at its heart, and enable a digital transition that is green and just for everyone. One concrete step leading the transformation should be ambitious EU ecodesign requirements for products and services, supported by inclusive harmonised European standards, and properly enforced by national authorities.

When we look across the world, we see that social and environmental standards are far higher in the EU than in any other national or regional economy. It didn’t have to go that way, but our political power, skill and determination has turned the Single Market into a force for good. We should celebrate that achievement before moving on to consider the next 30 years.

For many years, Western players have been going all out to placate the populistic-nationalist players and their destructive ideologies: yet their questionable methods of appeasement and undemocratic interventions have ended up bolstering the very powers that have come to pose a threat to peace. The way for new excesses of violence has been paved. By supporting firebrands, Russia has been able to expand its influence further – this is the Kremlin’s second front for the destabilisation of Europe.

A well designed redistributive payment is an essential tool to reduce inequalities among CAP beneficiaries and farming systems. But as is often the case, the best design strongly depends on national and regional specificities. The Czech Republic’s approach to the redistributive payment is a good example of that. The Czech CAP Stratgic Plan has now been approved by the European Commission. But in the weeks leading to the final approval, Agricultural Associations representing the larger farms of Czech Republic had been strongly protesting against the proposed 23% share of direct payments dedicated to redistributive income support. From the outside, one might think that these demonstrations were aimed at defending the exclusive interests of large farming corporations and landowners. But the reality is not so simple, as the situation could affect small and medium sized farmers as well. In this article, Terezie Daňková, a Czech farmer from South Bohemia, helps us understand the intricate history and structural composition of Czech farming that makes this issue so complex.

2023 promises to be a crucial electoral year in Europe as voters elect new national leaders in several major countries, including Turkey, Poland and Spain. This article explores the role of the European Green Party (EGP) members in these elections.