Introduction

• Author: Petropoulos, Georgios; Marcus, J. Scott; Yeung, Timothy
• Pages: 16-22

Contributio n to Growth : European Digital Single Market: Deliverin g economic benefi tsto citizens and busin esses

PE 631.04416

1.INTRODUCTION

Numerous legislative measures have been initiated or enacted in support ofthe Commission’sDigital

Single Mar ket Strategy(European Commission, 2015a). This rep ort pr ovides a s tock-t aking of whathas

been achieved in economic terms, of whatremains to be done,andof opportunit iesforthecoming

legislative term.

The study(IP/A/IMCO/IC/2018-012)has been undertaken for Policy Dep artment A of the Europ ean

Parliament,onbehalfoftheInternalMarketandConsumerProtectionCommittee(IMCO).Preliminary

results were presented at the IMCO Workshop on10 July 2018.

1.1.Objectives

The study “Contribution of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection toGrowth”(hereinafter

Alleweldt at al.(2014))was prepared for the IMCO Committee in 2014. That study called for an

ambitious revision of Europe an policy objectives in order to more full yrealisethepotentialofthe

Inter nal Marke t as agrowth e ngineandan anti -crisis mechanism. The currentEuropean Com mission

followed this pathby means ofane w set ofst rate gies , inc ludin g the DSM Strate gyforEurope2and A

Singl e Mark et St rate gy.3

TheIMCOCommitteehasrequestedaworkshopandanupdateofthe2014study.Theupdateis

comprisedofaseriesofin-depthanalyses.Thisstudy,whichfocusesontheDigitalSingleMarket,is

onecomponent of thatseries.

The aimsof the currentupdateare (1)to provide background information and advice for the

MembersoftheIMCOCommitteeonbenefitsbrought in the past and to be realised in the

foreseeable future for EU businesses and citizens by legislation established in the field of Internal

Market and Consumer Protection, and (2) to re flect on priority measures and actionsthat couldbe

undertak en in this fiel dgoing for ward.

1.2.Background

TheDigitalS ingle Ma rket ( DSM) Strategywas intended to tackle a wide range of issues related to the

digitisation ofEuropean society.Akeyover-archingtheme is the facilitation of cross-border electronic

commercewithin the EU. The DSM sought to do this withabarrageoflegislativemeasures,each

aimed at addressing one or more of the barriers to cross-border e-commerce that have been

identified by e-merchants or consumers (and evidenced in surveys).

TheDSMStrategyisbroadlyinlinewithnumerousinitiativesundertakenbytheParliament

overtheyears.FortheParliament,the“…DigitalSingleMarketisessentiallyaboutremoving

national barrierstotransactionsthattakeplaceonline.Itbuildsontheconceptofthe

commonmarket, intended to eliminatetrade barriers between Member States with the aim of

increasing economic prosperity …

2 European Commission (2015a), Digital Single Market Strategy, COM(2015)192 final.

3European Commission (2015d), SingleMarket Strategy, COM(2015) 550 final.