The single market is Europe’s home market – a shared space of 450 million people and 26 million businesses. It drives prosperity, protects citizens and workers, and anchors our economy in an increasingly uncertain world. The new single market strategy is the European Commission’s plan to make the single market simpler, seamless and strong – unlocking its full potential for citizens, workers and businesses. It focuses on removing the most harmful barriers, reducing red tape, promoting investment and ensuring fair competition.

The European single market is one of the EU’s greatest achievements. It has fuelled economic growth and made the everyday life of European businesses and consumers easier.

Despite progress, however, the Single Market remains fragmented, preventing businesses and citizens from using its full potential. Recognising this, the Commission is today presenting a comprehensive strategy to make it easier for businesses to operate and invest across the Single Market. Helping businesses prosper in Europe will boost Europe's competitiveness and support our strategic autonomy and security in these uncertain times.

The European Commission has introduced a new package to simplify rules and reduce bureaucracy across the Single Market. This package aims to make it easier for businesses to operate, innovate, and grow, while maintaining high standards of protection for consumers and the environment.

The Single Market Programme (SMP) is the EU funding programme to help the single market reach its full potential and ensure Europe’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. With €4.2 billion over the period of 2021-2027, it provides an integrated package to support and strengthen the governance of the single market.

The Internal Market Emergency and Resilience Act (IMERA) aims to ensure the uninterrupted movement of essential goods, services and persons across the EU during a crisis. It also ensures that critical supplies are available whenever the EU faces an emergency.

The European Commission’s main goal in the EU single market for goods is to ensure the free movement of goods within the market, and to set high safety standards for consumers and the protection of the environment.

Services are crucial to the EU economy. They account for around 70% of the EU’s GDP and an equal share of its employment. We aim to remove barriers for companies looking to offer cross-border services and to make it easier for them to do business.

A harmonised standard is a European standard developed by a recognised European Standards Organisation: CEN, CENELEC, or ETSI. It is created following a request from the European Commission to one of these organisations.

The notification system was set up to inform stakeholders about policy actions related to European standards. It helps ensure proper consultation and market relevance before the action is taken. The obligation to publish information on a website stems from Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012.

Harmonised standards adopted by the European Standardisation Organisations CEN and CENELEC: The harmonised standards, which had been disclosed under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, can be freely accessed on the online national readability platforms of the national standardisation bodies in a read-only format. As regards harmonised standards based on ISO or IEC international standards, those are currently available solely via individual requests for access to documents, according to Regulation 1049/2001.

Standardisation results from voluntary cooperation between industry, businesses, public authorities, and other stakeholders. About a fifth of all European standards are developed following a standardisation request from the European Commission to the European Standardisation Organisations (ESOs). This is a request to draw up and adopt European standards or European standardisation deliverables in support of EU’s legislation and poicies. European standards and European standardisation deliverables, even when drafted under a Commission request and for European legislation, usually remain voluntary. However, when European standards are adopted, National Standardisation Bodies (NSBs) should transpose them into identical national standards and withdraw any conflicting national standards.

ICT (information and communication technologies) standards play an essential role in achieving interoperability of new technologies and can bring significant benefits to both industry and consumers. They help ICT markets remain open and allow consumers the widest choice of products.

European standardisation is a consensus-building process that involves many players. As the development of standards is mainly initiated by market needs, industry plays an important role. European standards are then developed through one of the three European Standards Organisations: the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC), and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

This Vademecum compiles key documents from the European Commission on European standardisation policy and related practice. It provides guidance without having legal status.