ECB policymaker urges deeper EU market integration to boost competitiveness
Europe's geopolitical pressures and technology gaps are reinforcing calls to strengthen economic integration across the European Union. ECB policymaker Alvaro Santos Pereira says the bloc should deepen its single market in services, transport and energy, where barriers still constrain growth.
Highlights
- ECB policymaker Santos Pereira urged renewed efforts for EU market integration, citing geopolitical challenges and technological gaps exposing economic weaknesses.
- Santos Pereira identified major remaining barriers to integration as stemming from national institutions and regulations, making them harder to overcome.
- Completing integration in services, transport, and energy is now viewed by policymakers as crucial to boosting EU competitiveness and growth amid external pressures.
Push for broader market integration
As reported by Reuters, Santos Pereira said at a conference on Thursday that Europe should give fresh momentum to integration as a more difficult geopolitical environment and technological shortcomings expose weaknesses in the bloc's economic framework.He said the single market has already reduced many forms of fragmentation, but significant barriers remain. Those obstacles are now harder to address because they are rooted in national institutions and regulations, he said.
Competitiveness concerns across the bloc
The comments add to a broader push from European policymakers to remove barriers that are seen as weighing on the EU's competitiveness and growth.Santos Pereira said it is vital to complete integration in areas where it remains limited, including services, transport and energy. Deepening those parts of the single market is increasingly being framed as part of Europe's response to external pressure and internal structural weaknesses.
In our previous article on Mario Draghi’s warning about the policy trade-off between debt control and long-term growth, we outlined his view that fighting inflation should not unnecessarily choke off productive investment. We also noted his call for deeper EU market integration—alongside industrial policy steps and targeted EU budget support for AI investment—to strengthen productivity and resilience in a tougher global environment.
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