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so good afternoon while people are still entering the room I think it's time to begin with the conversation my name is Matias B I'm a director at easty and I'm very pleased to welcome you all to today's online webinar it is about the letter report and how to align political ideals and political action in Europe's single Market We Gather today to discuss a topic that I consider is a topic of critical importance to the future of the EU and member states future Paths of Economic Development the single Market is by many still considered the most fundamental Cornerstone of economic but also social integration but it faces challenges many old challenges and a couple of new challenges in an increasingly interconnected world and and a world that is uh increasingly developing economically and technologically economic gravity continues to shift away from Europe technological capabilities and with that technological capacities are steadily increasing outside the EU and at the same time member states markets and member states States legal regimes are highly fragmented on top of that labor costs are very high compared to other parts of the world especially in Western European countries High Energy prices in some parts of Europe put energy production energy intensive production at risk and when you look at indicators of productivity technological innovation and International competitiveness there's much reason to be concerned about the near-term path of economic activity and the future prosperity of citizens in the European Union's member states and the relative loss of EU technological and economic Cloud should actually incentivize many governments to truly cooperate to create a much better regulatory Level Playing Field in which businesses can thrive and scale potentially towards International competitiveness a big question remains of course and that is is there a real sense of urgency in EU politics to address these pressing issues and it is against this backdrop that the recent letter report emerges as what I would call pivotal call to action urging policy makers to rejuvenate the EU single Market through decisive reforms in a recent EIP study we argue that it is essential now for EU institutions and also member state governments to shift their focus away from what we consider an abstract concept the abstract concept of the single Market to a more concrete objective and that is legal harmonization across EU member states and we caution that the rise of econom nationalism and the shift towards strategic autonomy within the EU have hindered crucial Market reforms in the past and we call on EU institutions and member state governments to set specific goals for legal harmonization in the EU including for example tax policy social income social insurance regimes and labor market policies which could significantly enhance crossb economic ity inside the European Union our discussion today may or may not address some of these issues we will primarily delve into questions that we consider important that is why is it so important to improve the single market right now how can legal harmonization help boost Innovation and economic growth in Europe and what is the lwh hanging fruit or put differently what are some quick and effective actions EU policy makers or national governments can take immediately to make the single Market stronger and finally considering recent developments of course what big changes can we really expect from the new European commission the parliament to help move the single Market forward and we are very honored today to have a distinguished panel of experts with us our keynote speaker today is enrio a highly respected figure in European politics and for leadership enrio is the president of the Jac delor Institute which is a very influential think tank for a very long time now dedicated to European integration and policy Innovation enrio lettera also served as the prime minister of Italy uh for uh a short time during which he navigated the country through I would say pretty significant econom IC and political challenges and Beyond his National leadership enrio has also been a steadfast advocate for a stronger more integrated Europe and importantly of course he is the lead author of the letter report an independent high level report on the future of the single Market which we will explore in more detail today following Enrico Letter's keynote we will have two esteemed commentators we have Lucas ilas a former deputy secretary General at the ministry of economic Affairs in Estonia who will share his perspective on the letter reports findings and implications for policy and practice and we have ran Durana an analyst at The Institute of economic and social studies in Slovakia and the author of a recent report called Market Force revitalizing the single market for the next 30 Years and ran will offer his analysis and insights more on the future of the single market so as we navigate through today's discussion I encourage our audience to put questions and comments to our speakers using the chat box so I will refer to your questions to your audience following the interventions of our panelist I this is a good opportunity um for you to contribute to this dialect Dialogue on how policy makers could align political aspirations on the one hand and political action on the other so that said thank you once again for joining us and without further Ado I would like to invite our keynote speaker enri Getta to share his thoughts on the letter report and its vision for the future of the European single market so please enrio the floor is yours uh thank you so much Matias thank you so much to your team team uh isip work has been a fantastic boost and a fantastic also contribution a great support for the discussion around the single Market in this very period I would like to start by saying that first of all that for me it's a great gift if you name the report not letter report but with the title of the report because I put in the title uh a very important part of everything I uh try to do much more than a market much more than a market I think is the true and the most important frame of all the considerations around the single Market because in reality the idea that the single Market is much more than a market is something that is related to uh life of citizens people our communities uh is uh bringing us to a consideration around the role of the single Market uh more than a market more than directives more than regulations details technical decisions is our life this is at stake I uh was Ted by the European Council and European commission last summer to prepare this report I presented report April the 18th I decided to have this report through a bottomup method I visited uh uh All European countries I had more than 400 meetings 65 cities I was I was in Estonia I was in Slovakia I had the opportunity to meet a lot of stakeholders academic support governments parliaments uh for me the method was part of the substance of what I wanted to do and when I started this journey my first step was visiting jacqu delore for a very simple reason jacqu doore is the uh creator of the single Market he he was still alive when I met him uh at the beginning of my journey and he gave me some suggestions that I took as the cardinal points of the compass that was the uh through uh I would say um for me tool of my of my journey first point was uh the geopolitical change when the single Market was created uh the law was with 10 European member states uh the name was European communities and no more not not yet uh European Union uh Germany wasn't reunification Soviet Union was still there and China and India together were uh around uh the importance of Italy uh in terms of GDP at World level and today they are of course 25% of the world GDP and Europe is at 27 and we know we had brexit and so on so and we had first of all the Russian invasion to Ukraine so it's dramatic change in the geopolitical uh scenario so uh the single Market that was created uh it was for a word that is totally different from today and we have to take it into consideration the second big part uh second big Cardinal Point is related to the fact that when the single Market was created the Lord told me that I created at the same time the uh cohesion policies and I wanted to have a a true attention to cohesion policies because conversion is is part of the uh frame of the future of the single market then he told me when I launched the single Market member states told me that three main subjects three main sectors Telecom energy and financial services uh they didn't give me this sector for the integration and they took these sectors at National Dimension level Telecom energy Financial Services um I think it is part of today's problem and I decided to work starting from these suggestions of jacqu delore because I thought that this final point I mentioned the fact that energy Telecom and financial services weren't in the single Market big first boost and they remained for the national Dimension that is showed by the fact that regulation and supervision for these three sectors are in the hands of national authorities not of a European Authority and at the same time and this is the fourth Cardinal Point of my compass uh it is linked to what Matias said and I strongly believe that matias's point of this on the sense of urg is the crucial uh thought about what we are leaving uh we are experiencing since many years uh a beginning of a decline of the European Union in comparison with the rest of the world first of all with the us but also with Asia and other part of the world we have to react so my report has this sense of urgency as the base of everything I try to launch a call for Action uh presenting very concrete road maps there are three road maps in the report the three road maps are related to how to integrate the three sectors I mentioned before energy Telecom and financial services uh because in the integration of these three sectors is a key to relaunch European competitiveness and at the same time if we are not integrated and competitive on Telecom energy and ccial Services there's also a topic uh security that is becoming a a little bit problematic for Europe there's no security if we are weak on Financial Services there's no security if we are not independent and if we are weak on energy and the same for the Telecom system and today the weakness of Europe on these three subjects is unfortunately growing and growing this is why my Approach was really sense of urgency and the demonstration of that was the fact that I decided not to put in the report any treaty uh change any change of treaties because I uh I want to be very clear uh I think I do think that Europe needs treaty changes but I know how difficult it is today today to open the Pandora box of of treaty changes uh so many years since the last big treaty change and first of all um we know very well that the political energy we need I think it is better to put this political energy on uh policies rather than treaty changes also because I think it would be very complicated to be successful in treaty changes this is why I proposed a set of tools a set of proposals uh working with the present treaties that means also that my topic about a sense of urgency is very concrete I want to and I will propose a set of tools a toolbox that can be implemented very fast in the next years and this is the uh key issue um the three subjects I mentioned energy Telecom and financial services on the three can tell you Matias your point about low hanging fruit can tell you I feel that telecom today can be the low Hing fruit for the European system because after the white paper presented by the commission and in all the meetings I had around Europe I felt that there's a general a awareness of the fact that we can't continue like that we can't continue with 27 single markets we need to have a European single Market of on Telecom and we need to uh have a more competitive system able to innovate and able to have have again in Europe the technological revolutions that H we had 30 years ago 40 years ago in Europe and today uh we have no more in Europe this kind of revolutions but if I may say I think the most important topic is the financial services integration and I say that for many reasons first of all because we need to give a big boost to this topic because after 10 years of CMU Capital markets Union I think we have to be aware of the failure of the capital markets Union not the failure in terms of not having results we had some results but in general the political Mission the political big initiative of the capital markets Union failed and this is why I think and I put in my report the need to have integration in financial services is fundamental to relaunch European competitiveness without a strong a financial integrated Market uh Europe's competitiveness will decline uh I can tell you that I met so many young startupers around Europe from Finland to Portugal from Greece to Dublin and they all told me the same my dream is to go to the US because the US uh is a financial Market that will help me the environment is the one helping me because I want to take risks in Europe the risk aversion today is the role and uh the dimension of the Investments and the financial markets is not allowing me to grow and this is in my view one of the key points uh this is why I have to add also I add one important Flagship in my report that is the fifth Freedom the fifth freedom is the idea to add to the Four Freedoms Goods Services capitals and persons the freedom the fifth Freedom so knowledge Innovation uh uh boosting the intangible that is today what we are missing at European uh level but I was saying that uh the integration of financial services is absolutely fundamental for another big issue uh I started my journey around Europe with some ideas I have to tell you that meeting so many people and uh uh attending meetings attending debate attending debates I had the feeling that I needed uh to focus probably my journey to one topic that was the topic that I heard a lot during my journey and the topic was related to the anxiety around the big question and the big question is how to finance the the green deal and the transition the social and just transition this an Society was present in my journey in Estonia as in Slovakia in Germany as in my country Italy everywhere I had this feeling the feeling that people are uh nervous on that and the uh anxiety is bringing uh a lot of uncertainties about the future of the green deal that is part in my view of the reasons why populist parties are today in good shape in Europe because they are uh intercepting uh the the fears uh on the ground people thinking that if you say uh the green deal uh is decided if you say it will cost a lot and if you don't say anything on how to finance it I as farmer I as worker in the automotive industry I as uh I think I will pay for it and uh so I will try to block it I think the farmers protests in six months ago that I how we say met everywhere in Europe from woro to Spain from Belgium to Germany to Italy were part of this problem so why I say that and why I link this topic to the integration of financial services because we know very well that in Europe there is no agreement among the 27 on how to finance the transition there are some countries pushing for a new Next Generation EU so new Dept uh another part of the European countries pushing for more private money uh national uh resources and uh being against of a new uh uh Next Generation you this is why I strongly believe that the answer to the question how to finance the transition can be the outcome only of a compromise at European level in which the first pillar of this compromise is the creation of a strong European Financial Market uh able to maintain to keep to attract uh money of the European Savers we know there's this figure of the European Central Bank of 300 billion euros leaving Europe to go to the US uh because the US Market is more attractive uh the US Financial Market uh how to use our savings to bridge savings and the way to finance with private money the transition in the report there are many proposals on that incentives in the ideas to create a bridge and to help uh also because I have one point on the on Next Generation uh EU uh it has been a great success but with two limits one is too much public money driven not any leverage on private money and that is in my view a limit and the second one is too much National money and no crossborder initiatives and not European initiatives this is why and I um close to my conclusions I wanted to have in my report this idea of having a strong pillar of private money through the integration of financial services uh with this bridge uh that I mentioned with incentives you can find this incentive at Pages 30 and 31 of the report and this private money uh pillar can unblock uh how we say uh not like next Generation EU but some part of public uh money investment leg that is at this time necessary but the two can be together it can be a good compromise uh I wanted to put this topic because I once again I want to raise a red alarm if we are not able in next years to give a credible answer to the question how to finance the transition I think the political social and economic back Clash uh is uh there and it will be there and I am afraid that we don't want to address this topic but this topic will be there and will explose I maybe Matias end up with one point uh I address big importance to that uh the single Market uh today has also some fatigue also because of the lack of uh uh Level Playing Field too much uh ring fencing gold plating and also because we used too much in the last 15 years the directives as uh uh normative Tools in my report I strongly um support the regulation preference so an automat automatism that is in my view absolutely necessary and many other idea on um uh the way to accelerate to simplify one of them is this is not a new idea but I wanted to use it as Flagship the idea to launch uh this 28th virtual State as a sort of Benchmark and a sort of passar to for legal uh systems uh that can be the way to simplify so the idea to create a 28 virtual state where you have a um business law and you as Estonian or or Estonian or Slovakian uh uh company you can use it and through this 28th regime you can have a sort of passport to going everywhere in Europe without being obliged to change is a sort of simplification can't tell you that I presented in the US this idea at us Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC and they told me that this is what we American investors we need uh to be able to overcome obstacles language obstacles um uh low obstacles that we are blocking us to uh invest in Europe so um I after the presentation of the report at the European council meeting I presented the report in Main Mo most most of the capitals uh I will be tomorrow in Brussels I will be uh Thursday in Madrid I was last week in Luxembourg in Athens and in Lisbon exactly to do the same I would like to uh try to raise uh the importance of these topics and I would like to uh push European institutions uh to use these tools there are in the next days two great opportunities first uh is the discourse the speech of Ula F liion at the European Parliament in this speech uh I think she will set up the legislature I hope she will uh raise the importance of the single market and uh the economic program of the uh Hungarian presidency I will be in Budapest in September three times to try to discuss with them the way in which the Hungarian presidency can uh use the single market and can be a tool for this relaunch I stop here I'm ready to listen and to discuss yeah great thank you very much for this Pro and interesting intervention for summarizing the priorities that you addressed in the report and also the recommendations I think some of the recommendation are already being taken up by the council in the strategies 20 24 to 2029 if I remember correctly so I think that is already a success that I would ascribe to your work and the team of your at the work of your team you're absolutely right I think the single Market is much more than a market it's about how we um uh live at citizens in the EU how we cross borders how we pay how we spend our money how we can spend our money but it's also about how we cooperate on um finding good rules for economic activity good rules for governments how spend money and I think it goes beyond the three uh priority areas that uh you primarily address in in your report and with that I would like to hand over to Lucas I think to let me to to allow me to State this right away I think access to Capital markets access to funding is extremely important for small and large businesses uh but when you are a starter let's say and Uber uh competitor popping up in Estonia it's very difficult to you know transition your business model from talin to Rome or to Madrid because taxi markets are regulated at National level sometimes at municipality level and I think it's also about finding better rules ideally common rules rules for all sorts of sector specific and horizontal regulations so what is your uh look at the single Market where do you see the biggest a achievements but also the biggest challenges ahead Lucas thank you Matas um and thank you for that kind introduction you know in many ways on the substance of where we ought to go there's there's not too much to add to the letter report it is quite magisterial in its scope and and I think there's a lot of praise Mr Leta gets a lot of Praise You know I would just want to be out there and praise the rest of the team too because this has been a team effort um we saw that when he was here in Tulin and elsewhere um and so you really have done an amazing job putting together a narrative um and looking at the full breadth of of what we might go and do so you know if it were up to me I'd just say great we Implement everything and we're done uh the question is how do we actually go about doing this and and what is feasible given given the politics and then you know the objective rational reasons why we haven't actually built this integration over the past 20 years um and and in that sense I think the emphasis on implementation and on this toolbox it isn't just legislative is very welcome and the the part of the letter report that's about um that is about the commission using its existing powers to surveil the the implementation of legislation probably is the most boring part and a lot of people's eyes will glaze over but it might be the most important part there because that's something that the new Commission start doing really tomorrow and that can take advantage of so much of the single Market legislation that we've worked on over the last decades um let me talk first about some of the challenges uh and and why we have those challenges and then maybe offer some ideas on how we could overcome those um the first one around the politics is that you can line up all the pro single Market member states Estonia certainly one of them uh and say oh where is the problem everyone says that we should be doing this everyone is for you know every Council conclusion I've ever read that touches on the single Market says we need to do more single Market ostensibly all the support is there but then you get into the caveat some the details so you take for instance the the uh very transparent and sort of biannually updated EU positions of the Estonian government and there's all the boilerplate about supporting the single market and then there's a lot of butt there's a lot of well but here we want some flexibility and in this area we have a few red lines and in estonia's case there aren't too many red lines but you accumulate the different red lines of the different member states and you very quickly get into what is just a sort of the sheer volume of objections the sheer volume of desire to have greater flexibility for one reason or another has in the past undermined a lot of these efforts and one of the one of the areas or one of the concerns that has been a consistent threat has been security uh and so I'm very happy that the report addresses the security question if we take it take a look at the three markets that that the report focuses on that haven't been integrated telecommunications energy uh and and capital markets in each case not the only reason but a very strong obstacle to that integration are the sovereignty and security current concerns that governments have had had had in those domains and in practice have led them to ask well do we really trust Europe so let's take the example of telecommunications uh From estonia's perspective we're very hawkish when it comes to all sorts of security concerns uh when we had a discussion five years ago around the 5G uh risks around Chinese telecommunications equipment we weren't able to get to the point of a common position we came up with a toolbox that didn't actually lead to harmonization uh and so the Estonian position would be well if more European regulation means that we in fact open up our Market to this risk from China then you very quickly get into a red line or you get into another red line on Spectrum coordination by the way this little colorful graph behind me here it's a it's a mapping of spectrum allocation in Estonia the details aren't important the the colors are just pretty um there's a whole lot of nuance and detail and in estonia's case bordering Russia uh the traditional view has been one of distrust and skepticism toward whether we can trust Europe to do spectrum allocation and coordination with Russia as a whole now I would say From estonia's perspective on questions around security Europe has gotten a lot better in the last five years and so I think uh Estonia is probably open to a lot more harmonization because we see that the the commit done a really good job on taking these concerns seriously uh and certainly M wonderl will continue that line uh but that's just one sample of the challenges and the same thing Capital markets right you very quickly run into the question of well what about Third Country um influences what about uh moneya laundering um practices or the actual practice of how anti-money laundering rules are implemented where there great divergences so the devils in the detail and and security details often get in the way um in the context and of saying that the usual suspects that are pro single Market sometimes aren't so Pro single Market it's also worth noting that some member states that have a reputation for not always being the biggest friends in the single Market have actually taken a lot of real action uh in in the last year or two so the AI act it was France Germany and Italy that said stop you know this is actually going to undermine a lot of innovation um we need to loosen some of these restrictions uh not Estonia or or the Netherlands similarly when we had the platform workers dirve it was France and Germany listening to their Tech sectors who most aggressively said well this is not actually going to be a good regime as it's written and tried to put together a blocking uh minority um so there is I think some there's a positive hope here that the the Practical religion of a single market and and making some of these difficult legislative choices uh isn't just limited to a few small member states on the Northern Fringe of Europe now I I you mentioned Matas example of Bolt uh I mean one of many you know European companies who by the way have remained European and they've steadfastly said no we will not relocate to the US um although they've had a lot of trouble raising capital in Europe and a lot of their Capital has come from the US you know I I spoke recently with the president of the company on these topics and he said you know Well we'd love to have more Europe especially in Mobility legislation and and in the area of of mobility and and sort of how cities do their planning on the assumption that it's done right and and this really gets to The Crucible the question more single Market is good if the rules are actually an improvement over the current regime and so that's the question of course that everyone's going to be looking at toward you know toward France right now toward Italy toward Germany uh if we have further European legislation more regulations are those actually going to have a liberalizing effect are those going to Spur Innovation or are we going to find ourselves in the in a situation where the political compromise uh gets in the way of some of the goals set by the letter report and I imagine also the drogy report so a few thoughts then on how we can make these ideas happen well the first idea and this is really more of a question to Mr Lea but a question to everyone is prioritization there's a broad package of of changes here uh what are the things that we focus on getting right if you had to ask me I would probably vote uh as as others already have today for CMU um and for unlocking private Capital but there might be different views there um and and bear in mind that the cost of getting these re you know starting these reforms and getting them wrong is pretty high uh we have plenty of examples in the last decade of single Market reforms for instance a digital single Market that started off with great optimism but then once we got into the details of the legislative process we ended up having quite cluggy compromises that didn't actually deliver the regulatory environment we were hoping for so I very much would like to see the outcomes described in the report but the we also have to ask what is the risk that in embarking a on these changes we end up with a legislative outcome that is not in fact preferable to the current situation and that then brings us back to the prioritization question what are the things we start with first where do we where do we invest The Limited political capital of the member states the commission and the the groupings in the European Parliament that really want to make these changes um and then finally as a as a last thought um as a result of that we might also ask you know in total agreement with the report that the preferable regime is regulations um but we might ask where we're more likely to be successful in going back to the country of origin principle uh but then really making that work and sort of uh finding or getting rid of some of the obstacles to that country of origin principle working well because if we you know if we ask the kind of analytic question what has worked well in the past a lot of the successes of European legislation for instance around the first round of the internet economy were precisely because passporting worked very well worked very well country of origin work worked well and that is something that we have rather been undermining with with a lot of our legislation in The Last 5 Years so there's a lot of good here and I think the the those who are friends of the report and this ideas really should be asking how do we make this work how do we build the coalitions to make it work uh and I hope that uh those comments are then taken my comments are taken in a sort of spirit of being a very constructive contribution and and in no way critical of the report itself yeah thank you very much Lucas uh very rich intervention uh um how to build coalitions I think that is a big question we will come back to this in a minute um you've also made the point that it's not only that we need to have more let's say truly single Market policies the policies that we arrive at should also be better than the ones that exists in the first place in the first place um otherwise it would not make so much sense uh in terms of economic efficiency um my impression is that what we have seen over the past five perhaps already 10 years now is that um the appetite towards liberalization harmonization streamlining and mutual recognition of national policies um got lost uh at the same time the EU progressed with new policies in areas where we did not have policies in the first place especially when it comes to to digital policies and I know that this is a priority concern expressed in your report about Market Force and you know uh working towards a single market for the next 30 Years ran so what is your general perspective on where we are where we need to go and also your what are your views on um the letter report and the recommendations well thank you Matas uh for anyone uh from Slovakia when you ask about single Market all slovaks should praise the single market and and be the first in the line uh explaining that uh our economy uh grew so extensively the the the export grew from 50 to 90% of GDP in about 10 years uh and 80% of the export is on the single market so we are sort of a role model of what can happen if single Market is working very well and the capital moves uh across the borders and and and connects uh the Labor uh at the same time when we entered European Union as it was mentioned uh the share of EU on world GDP was 26% uh currently should be about 177% and the United States is uh 26% uh although uh the population is one quarter less than Europe so uh the the difference is much higher when we take into account the population uh when we were working on the document uh we uh we find out uh many things that are mentioned in latest report and and and uh it is short report our report is short cannot be compared with much more than a market because uh we didn't have that capacity and and knowledge and stuff uh we we found issues in uh occupational licensing uh we found issues in uh crossborder Services uh I can mention an example of uh Pharmacy business uh which is very different in every single country so we have uh 27 Telecom markets we have 27 phes markets like in in Slovakia uh uh single company can own only one Pharmacy so uh this is very good environment for any uh foreign investor in Slovakia and uh we also came to uh the commission's uh statistics on transposition of uh directives related to single market and uh we analyzed all the bodies and committees and procedures that are helping to transpose uh the directives and regulations to National legislations and uh this is such a sad reading uh it's like uh you are trying to fight with big uh um uh resistance like the member states are really trying to resist to Implement things and and go for single market and uh for me uh understanding these buddies and their evolution uh was like really recognizing that the single Market the biggest limits of the single Market is in the member states uh and in the oppositions of member states and uh this is something uh that it's so hard to overcome and at the same time uh in the lines of the modern market report uh you can ask the question uh what should be the level of harmonization of European union and how much should be sort of federalized things uh because we European Union just does not have financial resources that uh US federal government has and the uh the power to force the legislation uh we just don't have it and and it's so difficult and uh I mean I I would agree with the most of the proposals uh the European business code is something that we definitely necessarily need I'm I'm just not trying to think how it will end up just because the member states are so afraid of the competition just take into account we have uh this uh instrument for private penion savings uh pep uh that that was introduced and and has really favorable conditions and the governments are still refusing to accept it as a uh normal alternative to governmental penion systems that avoiding the tax uh uh allowances that are provided to national product so uh this uh resistance of uh member states uh when you when you uh added to uh a cultural thing that we have in Europe the cultural thing is uh or me as an economist I would say uh we had in in last 50 years the cultural mind of Europeans has switched from understanding uh the need for economic growth uh to uh taking economic growth as something granted something that does not have to be fought for something that will just happen and uh in in simple words it it results to situation that uh even uh I think it was uh European commissioner who said that we should accept the proposal for 4 day week and and for the week is something that uh illustrates the uh European values uh lure is more than uh production and uh when you say economic growth in many European universities it is something uh not welcomed uh we are talking about degrowth uh in European union and this is connected to our uh protectionist culture uh when you think about uh last legislations of European commission uh minimum wage uh uh uh then uh you can take the uh regulation of platform work which is trying to move contractors to uh become expensive employees with a very strict and difficult labor codes regulation uh even the gender pay Gap or gender regulation new new directive that will result to tons of new bureaucracy for employers uh the European culture is very protective uh it goes through uh consumer protection when I was looking at the website of European commission I realized that gdpr law is considered by European commission to be the biggest achievement uh of European commission uh for me it's quite surprising because it was well proven that gdpr is decreasing the sales of tech companies and decreasing the profits of uh tech companies so uh the last thing is uh that was already mentioned the uh issue of financing the energy transition well energy transition is not a a regular economic process it's a politically static process uh the thing that we lack uh capital in the transition is that it's not profitable producing energy uh can create some profit but if it does not attract the capital now then the regulator barriers or the economy of itself is uh not very feasible we actually need energy to produce other things and other services currently Europe has two times more expensive electricity and I think three times more expensive natural gas uh so far uh uh Renewables are not generating uh lower prices of electricity and it seems like they are not going to provide uh lower prices of electricity and I'm going back to competitiveness uh if we have uh higher priced energies and we will have uh if we are if we wish to have uh so protective uh legal environment for employees for customers uh even for companies uh that's the slight difference between the European and American attitude that bankruptcy is something that allow allows birth of new company while in Europe bankruptcy is a strategy uh that's why it's uh the the entrepreneurial Spirit uh in Europe uh has to be looked for while in United States you can find it everywhere and if we are not going to change uh these cultural attitudes uh the growth that uh we can expect even even we would be able to apply most of the proposals from the MR Leta report uh the growth still will be slower I think uh we we are currently talking about uh uh slowing down the decline uh of European competitiveness if we want to kind of uh move ahead uh towards United States uh we would need a lot more uh uh cages and aggressive reforms uh in economic terms thank you Rovan um for giving us a broader perspective I would say based on facts and figures from numerous reports about The enforcement of EU regulation but also industry intelligence about the performance of specific Industries uh including the energy producing sector um I'm losing optimism if I when I hear all all that so there's a lot that needs to be done uh where National governments failed to do so but also where we saw in the past lack of appetite on the side of EU institutions to forward the right policies um and I wonder where the current mode of economic integration you know having all 27 member states go ahead with a directive or a regulation is still the right one and that draws me to the first question uh raised by Jack shikler um asking are the chances of your report enrio being acted on greater or less since the French elections um to add on that question when we think of the zon speech of acting president Emmanuel R where he said that France is ready to complete the capital markets Union uh when needed among a a smaller group of countries that are willing to do so uh against opposition from what he I think called uh the Central and Eastern European hemisphere then we do so now I wonder whether this mode in general is the way to go for in the future and also referring to the question raised by Jack shitler what's now going to happen after the French elections I would let let me let me address this to you enrio and then follow by Lucas and ran I can't tell you that it's in my view it is too early to say for a very simple reason the French elections can have two out two outcome two different outcome one outcome it is what I hope a strong um awareness of the macron camp and the uh Center left left and the Republicans uh that they have the last chance uh to stop the raise of populism in France through the creation of a a strong government coalition government if they are able to do so I think they can be a very important boost helping for instance the integration of financial markets but there's also another option the other option is that they are not Italians if I may say and they are not Germans so they they don't know how to create coalitions how to tolerate the others how to tolerate the enemies how to make an agreement with a an enemy and we know how to do it and the Germans the same so uh the the lack of experience in French politics brings me to think that there's uh one option and a very negative option that they are not able to find an agreement so they will continue for one year with not a very uh I would say strong government and they will vote again uh soon and that means that French boost at European level will we will miss the French boost so so I think it is too early but my answer is that of course the French role will be important because I in my report I clearly said inertia means decline so all these topics are topics where we need positive actions U being just in defense or being just in a defensive way or uh working in inertial way uh is not enough it is so clear so I I I think we will see in the next days if they are able uh I I think it is 5149 in favor of a government a strong government because the the political cost of a a backlash uh will be too big both in France at at European level because this political cost will bring M Leen to the power and this political cost will uh create a big inbalance in in Europe and I think without France pushing in favor of more integration it would be very complicated on some of these issues Lucas briefly just full agreement yeah r one well um I'm not a political scientist um I'm I'm not going to comment I just uh there will be a party probably uh trying to uh uh make a coalition that is proposing uh increased minimum wage and uh Frozen prices and decreasing Energy prices uh and there will be from from my perspective I'm I'm a fan of economic growth uh the the government uh new government will have it really difficult times to propose uh pro market reforms mhm now question related to the recent politics underline the single Market what can we expect from the new horizontal single Market strategy enrio you know the I think the main point is uh in in the next uh days uh uh weeks uh the the possibility to have a raise of the single Market as the core of the relaunch of the European competitiveness integration is in the hands of the um members of the European Council of the members of the European Parliament and in the hands of the new commission I think uh there a general awareness that is our tool is a tool that can work and there's also a general awareness that it is not just a relaunch but it is the consideration of the fact that in reality on many issu issues we didn't have the single Market simply we didn't have it uh in in the Telecom system is very complicated to say that we are living in a single market and the same in the capital markets Union I decided to launch a new brand as you see in the report savings and Investments Union instead of capital markets unit I say that because the CMU was a failure and I say that because we need to um a relaunch also in terms of higher purpose of this integration my point is that if I may say um of course I'm biased but I don't see any other credible tool or track or proposal for the launch of the European Union because the single Market is there it is in the treaties it is our strength it is our tool um why don't we exploit it completely why why why we continue like that in reality when we see in the in the we say the data in the University uh research we see the comparison China us Europe in reality is a because on many fields Europe doesn't exist as a single Market you have all the different countries uh you how many stock exchanges we have in Europe how many that it's NASDAQ is one and it is like the sum of all European stock exchanges plus half and it's clearly that we are playing in two different championships in that yeah so let me ask one more question uh because we are running a little out of time and that one is related to some concerns uh Francesco Theo is asking whether um more single Market in the area of TCO energy and Financial Service would actually benefit companies more than it would benefit consumers because it could trigger major consolidation is this a merited concern or what are your views uh I know it is a concern and I know it is a topic but what I would like to say is that consumers today on Telecom are happy but if we continue like that in the next five 10 day 10 years they won't be happy uh because the present I we say Telco industry uh situation is at the disaster because of the lack of Investments the lack of scale Dimension so uh I think there are all the possibilities to apply the protection the consumer protection rules uh in a European market and not just in single Market the today's situation in Telecom is totally paradoxical with companies that are too small clearly too small to run a business on that having Investments on Telecom we need Investments and today we don't have uh these Investments we it was a system where 40 years ago Europe was at the Forefront all the re technological revolutions were in Europe all the big Brands were in Europe today we are third by far third by far and I think it is also because of the lack of uh Dimension so the lack of dimension in a market that is a World Market at the end of the day is a damage for the consumer and we have all the we say uh toolbox in in our rules on how to protect the the consumers Lucas yeah I mean I just praise the report here by pointing out that there's a fair bit of nuance in the recommendation which is not to uh consolidate all areas of telecoms Regulation but to focus on consumer protection and areas where effectively you're less dependent on the physical infrastructure and that that would be the focal point of of a European uh regulator and a European agency um I unfortunately uh had a hand in the current uh some of the current uh obstacles to single Market uh regulation when we when we last negotiated an update to the rules in the council about five years ago um and just maybe one one s of one final thought we should also think of atypical uh arguments politically for all of this you know again the telecom's example is a good one we're focusing on the sort of the impacts of the regulation of the market environment at the same time you know we also very costly regulatory States and Regulators that cost a lot to uh just to fund and frankly Brussels is fairly cost effective when it comes to regulating and if you look at the the the the number of people working in European agencies versus the breadth of what they do versus many national Regulators you know there might be an argument not present in the report to the effect of well in areas where we create more European legislation we can lay off a bunch of civil servants at a national level or repurpose into something which has a certain populist ring to it so uh fire all the civil servants at National level by employing fewer at European level maybe one of those one of those secondary arguments that also speaks to some people yeah very good and run around over to you uh what about the implications of more consolidation in a single Market that is characterized by much more legal harmonization uh bearing in mind that larger companies are generally the ones that are more productive attract more Talent produce more Talent are the most Innovative companies on the planet is this a concern that is Justified well I'm definitely supporting the idea uh I was actually looking at the prices comparing United States and some European prices and it seems that for example internet in United States is more expensive than in Europe but at the same time uh when you see the amount of Investments per user uh you see that China and United States are very much ahead of European union and this is exactly as Mr Lea said that uh current low prices uh do not guarantee a future low prices or future quality of services and I would connect it to U the capital uh Market uh Union um I would like to invest in strong European telecom companies uh that generate profits uh now in Slovakia I have four providers and I cannot invest in in them I cannot I cannot share the profit so uh allowing this uh uh pant savings on European markets together with strong Consolidated companies it goes together so I'm I'm definitely in favor and I'm um I think we are uh Rich enough uh to deal with increased prices uh because what what we should really focus on is the technological invention and and and future growth of the companies and and there are definitely uh limits to current uh situation when we have how many uh 11 million or 10 million users per one company whil in United States it's about 100 million2 or 100 million and 40 so uh we we should uh Step Ahead in this are MH thank you very much so I think we could go on talking about a single market for hours in an attempt to uh amend the road maps uh put forward in the letter report to revise them or potentially extend them but we need to come to a close and I think it's clear that the single Market Remains the vital pillar of European integration their vital pillar underlying the new the European Union's economic strength in the future I think the recommendations highlighted in Enrico Letter's report and in previous reports that we should uh acknowledge they provide a robust roadmap uh Baseline for uh policy change so I think we can Embrace this moment perhaps the beginning of the creation of a sense of urgency and the political domain with some optimism some determination probably uh working on to create a single Market or at least to defense the underlying pillars of the single Market uh not only the meets the needs of today but also anticipate and the adapts uh of the demands uh tomorrow with that I would like to thank you all for your very valuable contribution for your time for your availability to participate in today's conversation and for advancing this discussion uh about the single market so thank you very much thanks to our audience as well and goodbye