European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and Stiebale, J., Cross-border M&A and innovation in the EU, Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/6064677

This paper analyzes the characteristics of cross-border M&A (merger and acquisition) in the EU and discusses their relationship with innovation performance. The average EU target firm that is acquired in international M&A is larger and more innovative than the average domestic target firm. Postacquisition, there is a decline in innovation output (measured by patent applications) generated by inventors in the country of the target firm. However, the average cross-border M&A is not necessarily associated with larger innovation reduction in the country of the target firm than a domestic transaction. Innovation in the country of the acquirer tends to increase when M&A provide market access. Theory and empirical evidence indicate substantial heterogeneity across firms and industry characteristics. I discuss implications for FDI screening, merger policy and industrial policy.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Beyer, R., Yi Li, C. and Weber, S., Economic benefits from deep integration – 20 years after the 2004 EU enlargement, Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/9328174

EU enlargement has stalled since the last member joined over ten years ago, marking the longest period without expansion since 1973. This elapsed time contrasts with the potential income gains membership promises. Drawing on the biggest EU enlargement in 2004 and employing a synthetic difference-in-difference estimator on regional data, we estimate that EU membership has increased per capita incomes by more than 30 percent. Capital accumulation and higher productivity contributed broadly equally, while employment effects were small. Gains were initially driven by the industrial sector and later by services.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and Felbermayr, G., The economics of diversification tariffs, Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/6751835

Recent evidence shows that imports of critical products can be concentrated on a small number of supplier countries. Such supplies are therefore vulnerable to disruption, whether because unfriendly governments seek to weaponize dependency or for other reasons. In a laissez-faire equilibrium, importers are likely to buy from too few suppliers because the benefits of diversification are not fully internalized while the costs of buying from more expensive sources remain with them.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union and European Union Intellectual Property Office, EU enforcement of intellectual property rights – Results at the EU border and in the EU internal market 2023, European Union Intellectual Property Office, 2024, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2814/4807266

The Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) have partnered to release annual reports detailing the efforts made by customs, police, and market surveillance authorities to enforce IP rights in the European Union (EU). This report presents the outcomes of the EU's IP enforcement activities for the year 2023, drawing on data from 26 EU Member States (noting that the Greek dataset is missing) at the border and 24 countries within the internal market. This document aims to provide valuable insights on IP infringements across the EU both at the EU borders and in the EU internal market. Furthermore, it offers policymakers reliable data to support their decision-making process and prioritization of policies.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and Verwerft, D., Evaluation of R&D subsidies in the case of industry-specific technology stocks with spillovers, Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/6008806

The objective of this paper is to gain insight in and compare the macroeconomic effects of increasing wage subsidies for researchers in Belgium in different industries. Starting from the observation that the implicit wage subsidy rate for R&D workers is not distributed evenly across industries, the paper wants to contribute to answering the question whether the current distribution of subsidies can be improved upon.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Evaluation study on the implementation of Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance and compliance of products, Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/6477268

The Evaluation Study on the Implementation of Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 aims to assess the application and effectiveness of this key regulatory instrument, which is crucial for market surveillance and ensuring product compliance within the EU. Article 4 mandates that economic operators must be present within the EU for certain products. It specifies the responsibilities they must fulfil when these products are placed on the EU market. The study collected data through desk research, surveys, and interviews to evaluate the criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added value. The findings indicate that Article 4 has been partially effective in enhancing product safety and compliance, protecting EU consumers and reducing costs for Market Surveillance Authorities (MSAs).

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Connell Garcia, W. and Ho, V., External vulnerability index (EXVI), Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/4359186

In today's global economy, understanding EU supply chains is crucial for informing policies that enhance economic efficiency and resilience. As one of the most open regions, the EU benefits from global market access and well-integrated supply chains but also faces vulnerabilities that impact industries and aggregate economies, as seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis, and rising geopolitical tensions. A data-driven approach to identify vulnerabilities is essential to support an effective monitoring of EU supply chains over time.

European Investment Bank, Investment report 2024/25 – Innovation, integration and simplification in Europe, European Investment Bank, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2867/8065730

The European Union must solidify its position as a global leader in technology, innovation and clean energy. By addressing key challenges and leveraging existing strengths, Europe can enhance its competitiveness, foster economic growth and show the world how to successfully transition to green energy. In short, Europe needs to:Better integrate the EU single market and simplify access to it. Market fragmentation caused by regulatory and structural differences hinders the businesses’ ability to take full advantage of the wider European market. This is particularly true for innovative firms – 74% of them cite regulators inconsistencies as a barrier to expanding their business. Simplifying regulatory compliance could reduce costs, which currently account for about 1.8% of turnover for firms and 2.5% for small and mid-size companies.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Fontagné, L. and Yotov, Y. V., The low-hanging fruit of the single European market – New methods and measures, Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/4767562

We propose and construct novel measures of the effectiveness and potential of trade blocs, combining estimation with granular data and simulation with a New Quantitative Trade Model. We deploy our methods and new indexes to quantify the potential benefits from (i) further integration within the largest and most successful trade liberalization effort in the world – the Single European Market – and (ii) a possible enlargement. Three main results and implications stand out from our analysis. First, European integration has been very effective in promoting trade among its members, with heterogeneous effects across industries and member states. Second, and most novel and important, our estimates reveal that only half of the potential benefits from EU membership have been realized to date. Third, EU accession will generate very large gains from trade for the new joiners and moderate gains for existing members, with larger benefits for some small and peripheral EU members. Importantly, our methods enable us to construct confidence bounds for the effects of EU enlargement.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Heikkonen, H., Listl, N. and Reuter, A., Mapping the impact of industrial decline on European regions, Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/0801182

This Single Market Economics Brief zooms in on six major manufacturing sectors which are key to the Green Transition, as well as construction, and subjects them to a rigorous ‘health check’. Starting from the diagnosis that the sectors are indeed showing worrying signs of ‘ill health’ and/or significant downside risks, our analysis provides evidence where exactly a continued geographic pattern of decline of the sectors in question would have the strongest repercussions in terms of employment. The study is conducted at the level of the 242 European NUTS-2 regions and thus allows, to our knowledge for the first time, a systematic and granular mapping of the potential impact of industrial decline across Europe.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Hassel, A., Gómez, S., Jansen, J. and Weil, K., Navigating emission-intensive sectors through the green transitions, Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/5493940

This paper analyses the regional and social distribution of emission-intensive industries and the challenge of supporting workers and communities dependent on such industries during the green transition.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and Reuter, A., Obstacles to economic activity in the EU – A survey-based analysis, Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/8215117

The first survey considered in this note is the ‘Joint Harmonised EU Programme of Business and Consumer Surveys’ (EU BCS), which interrogates every month some 120,000 company managers from all across the EU about various aspects of their business (trend in production, employment, etc.), including the factors limiting their production/business. Established in the 1960s, the programme tracks managers’ answers over several decades.

COM(2025)500 - Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

This Strategy presents a new approach to further developing our European market. It consists of the following pillars: 1) Fewer barriers: joint and focused efforts to take down the most harmful Single Market barriers - doubling down on efforts to tackle the ‘Terrible Ten’. 2) More ambition: a new approach to boosting European services markets. 3) More focus: on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) including innovative startups and scaleups. 4) More effective digitalisation: Member States and the EU need to work in sync. 5) More simplification: taking immediate action to reduce red tape and make things simple. 6) More effective implementation and enforcement: the well-functioning of our European Market is a joint responsibility of the EU and the Member States. 7) More ownership: increasing political and national engagement. 8) More synergy: paradigm shift in EU spending. 9) More protection: acting as a shield from unfair trade practices.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Garrone, M., Marotta, G. and Reuter, A., Signs of de-industrialisation? – A deep dive into the European car industry, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/4335714

In recent years, the European industrial sector has been facing significant pressures that have sparked concerns about a potential wave of de-industrialisation. The drivers typically invoked are the energy crisis triggered by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, China's increasing competitiveness in key technologies for the green transition, such as batteries, electric vehicles and photovoltaic cells, as well as the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) with its potential to lure investment and production to the US. A growing labour and skills shortage in Europe further complicates the situation, as the industry relies heavily on skilled workers to adapt to green technologies and automation.