Published on
20/05/2026 - 12:09 GMT+2
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers that the bloc must tear down remaining barriers in its internal market to compete in the current geopolitical climate.
"We must finish what we started. We must remove the barriers that still persist in our internal market," von der Leyen told MEPs gathered in plenary session on Wednesday. "We must make it much easier to scale up across Europe. This is the basic promise of the single market and it must be fulfilled."
Von der Leyen singled out the practice of so-called "gold plating" — whereby member states layer unnecessary complexity onto EU rules — as a key obstacle to business growth across the bloc.
