What Stéphane spoke about.

Mr President, I will pay attention to my speaking time, I promise you. At the same time, last year, transatlantic relations were experiencing strong tensions. European companies were also faced with a very volatile and uncertain climate, a lack of predictability with regard to customs duties in particular. Today, after a year, the Turnberry agreement, despite tensions, the situation has clearly improved. Challenges remain. We now have a platform to exchange with our main partner. The agreement, as set out in the following EU-US joint statement, has helped in particular to restore some form of predictability for businesses and our consumers. It serves as a basis for further work with our partners, and it is now a matter of stabilising the situation, also deepening mutual understanding efforts and continuing efforts to support and improve the situation of EU exporters in the US market. The Commission would like to thank the House, and in particular President Lange, for your commitment to ensuring that this agreement keeps its word, in a way. I would also like to apologise to Commissioner Šefčovič who was supposed to be here, who will be with us right after, but who was held back by other obligations. And the outcome of the trilogue for the Commission, reached on 20 May, is a solid one. It is also implementing an agreement on the European Union side, which is clear vis-à-vis the United States, which we are now waiting for, with reciprocal commitment also on the American side. I am also pleased that INTA has strongly endorsed these two pieces of legislation. Today's vote is an important step as it takes up an opportunity to move forward and strengthen our position in favour of a strong engagement with the United States on the outstanding issue. For the Commission, there are now several priorities. We will ensure that the United States abides by the terms of this agreement. As regards customs duties for EU exporters and steel and aluminium products, we have already seen substantial improvements thanks to the revision of 2 June. We will continue to work and advance and also put some kind of pressure on for more progress to be made. In any case, we are counting on the European Parliament to stand with the Commission in improving this agreement.

Mr President, well, perhaps to say a few words about what I have just heard about the last two speeches. First, some of what I have heard is within national jurisdiction. The energy mix today is a national competence. Our difficulty today to have an integrated market that can have interconnections between countries to bring down the price of energy, it is bilateral agreements between Member States that must be pushed and that the Commission will accompany. But it is not the Commission's responsibility today to choose the Member States' energy mix. This is still not the Commission's choice. I would also like to tell you that today the Commission treats energy in the same way, from nuclear power to photovoltaics to wind power. And I'll even tell you one thing: energy today is not even an environmental issue anymore, it's an economic issue. We must produce our energy on European soil. This is our best way to build economic resilience. We are hit by a crisis today that we did not want, the Strait of Hormuz. No European wanted this crisis. No European is at war. But energy prices are rising. Why? Because we are independent? No, because we are addicted. Dependent on fossil gas. So I hear in this House, systematically, that it would be the Green Deal who would have triggered the price increase, who would have triggered the seven deadly sins of the plagues of Egypt or I don't know what. In short, I will tell you today that our ability to change this energy mix and to produce energy on European territory today is probably one of the priorities that all Member States must put in place. And the Commission is ready to accompany them. That's it. And so, let's face it, if all countries were sovereign, there would have been no impact on the price of electricity in Europe today. If we were able to produce our electricity with a sovereign energy market, there would be no energy crisis in Europe, there would be no competitiveness problem. And so we need to accelerate towards decarbonization. It's an economic issue, not an environmental issue. And I believe that, for the time being, the Commission has given evidence in recent weeks that this accompaniment is possible.

Mr President, thank you for this opportunity, first of all, to tell you that one of the most important vulnerabilities is to be more than 90% dependent on a country in a strategic sector, and this is the case in many sectors in Europe today. I will not go back over the history of our vulnerabilities, the first being the vulnerability of Russian oil and gas, which has cost the European economy more than €1.5 trillion since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The second vulnerability is that of dependencies related to rare earths and critical raw materials. With a plan, RESourceEU, that we have proposed to accelerate this diversification and production in Europe. And then the third vulnerability is to digital services – we saw it again last Friday. To tell you that this strategic question provides several types of answers. First, the first is to diversify our imports and exports. This is all the work that the Commission is doing to organise value chains, increase the resilience of our industries, increase the number of trade agreements to be able to satisfy both export markets at European level, but also our imports of critical raw materials, which are now 100% dependent. This strategy of multiplying trade agreements makes strategic sense for Europeans; this is also the sense of independence. And then we have to produce in Europe, at the same time, and do both. Producing in Europe also means using European public money to create the conditions for production in Europe in these strategic sectors. This means using public procurement, European preference over a number of sectors, reorganising value chains to safeguard European industries. This is the meaning we give to our proposals for the Industrial Accelerator Act, the , Digital Sovereignty Act, which we have presented over the past two months. Last point: I am very pleased, Mr Ferber and Mr Fernandes, that the EPP and the Socialists, together, are defending the internal market. Yes, the internal market is the very condition for being sovereign and independent, since our market has 450 million consumers. It needs to be deepened, and barriers removed, so that our industries can be international and compete internationally. We have a market of 450 million consumers. We have companies that need to have growth capabilities in that market as well. We must be able to look for these growth capacities when there is public money invested in public procurement, in subsidies that we give to companies ourselves. Today, there is too much international preference, not enough European preference. This is the objective that we are also pursuing with the laws that we have tabled, on which Parliament must now give an opinion, in order to be able to enter into trilogues as soon as possible and reach agreement on these strategic laws. Last word, Mr President, since I have some time: There's an emergency. Urgency, because the world is moving fast, and we are hit by crises that we do not control – and independence is one of the factors in controlling our destiny. There is urgency in a number of areas: the energy sector, the defence sector, the critical minerals sector, the digital sector. All these sectors must also be sectors of European sovereignty. This is also why the Commission is acting quickly and encouraging the European Parliament to also move quickly in its parliamentary readings and in your parliamentary procedure.

Mr President, I am also delighted to inaugurate these new rules of debate with you this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, how can we guarantee our prosperity, our security, if our value chains can stop, that is actually the title of the debate you wanted, to stop overnight, by decisions taken without us, on the other side of the planet? On Friday, the US cut off access to Anthropic’s most advanced AI models for foreign nationals. Two months ago, China demanded that its companies stop cooperating with the European authorities in our investigations, or face sanctions. Three months ago, our entire economy was facing soaring energy prices as a result of a war that no European wanted. Six months ago, our industries faced a supply shortage of rare earths decided unilaterally by China. This economic interdependence is no longer a guarantee of stability: it is also a vulnerability when dependency is high. This is the case with our means of payment. This is also the case for our financing and investment, as €300 billion of Europeans' savings leave Europe for lack of an attractive capital market. And in all these essential sectors, in the foundation of our economic model, we depend mainly on the United States and China. However, all these dependencies are a risk: for our security, for our freedom of decision, for our competitiveness. That is why the President of the Commission was right to say: 'This must be Europe's independence moment.' Our generation bears a historical responsibility: building the economic independence of the European Union. Not to isolate ourselves, but to anticipate risks, reduce those risks and ultimately create the conditions for a resilient economy. So, whatever the Commission programme, we have built an independence programme, which we are now developing, since the beginning of this mandate. With theIndustrial Accelerator Act and the Digital Sovereignty Act, we are accelerating investment in digital infrastructure. With the Battery Strategy, we support a comprehensive European value chain from extraction to recycling. We must now go further, rethink our European investment policies as a whole, through the investment and capital market, and finally through a European budget (within the multiannual financial framework), with a European preference – including for production – and through a forthcoming reform of public procurement, which I will have the honour of presenting before the summer. European money must be more supportive of European employment, European innovation, European industrial capacity. So, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for this important debate today. Economic independence is a priority for the Commission. We propose, during this debate, to be able to explore other avenues, and I am obviously at the disposal of parliamentarians so that, under the new rules of this Chamber, we can respond a little more directly and with more flexibility.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, at the end of this important debate, on behalf of the European Commission, I welcome the support for strengthening the internal market. Yes, it is high time to deliver by also offering our companies economies of scale, ensuring quality jobs for Europeans. The important message to remember is that we cannot end this mandate with more barriers, as in all other mandates for a number of years. Let us at least give this objective. On 25 May, a year ago, we proposed a strategy targeting ten important barriers to trade between us, ten regulatory barriers that have an impact on the European economy. We are working with you, the Member States and their representatives to break down these barriers. But I say it here in front of the members: 70% of the work is also at national level, in terms of national regulations and legislation. We published the 28the As a regime, we have published a functioning European legal framework to allow companies to operate across Europe, not only with the same rules, but also with a single supervisor, as well as the foundations of a Capital Markets Union. We have also published proposals on the Capital Markets Union, on telecom networks and on the modernisation of our energy infrastructure. Finally, the Commission, the Council and Parliament, together with you, have made commitments and a very clear roadmap on this subject. So we have to live up to it, we have to deliver. The urgency is there and you all stressed it this morning: our competitors are not waiting. With 450 million consumers, our potential is immense, but it is often untapped. We need to gain growth points with the internal market. The Draghi and Letta reports have made this clear to us: Fragmentation costs us growth points in the European economy, jobs, but also our sovereignty. Each barrier not removed, it is European companies less, capacities of competitiveness in the world that we lack. As you have understood, as President von der Leyen also reminded us this morning, our action is very clear: first of all speed up – and I am counting on you for the proposals that are under way to move fast on telecoms, on energy, on the financial services market and on the capital market, but also on the e-Declaration which is under discussion – and you can count on me for the proposals that we still have to deliver to the Commission. I am thinking in particular of public procurement or the circular economy, which will arrive in the coming weeks. The primary objective is to unleash the full power of the internal market, then to apply it equally, Member State by Member State, and finally to simplify our procedures. I was committed to this during my hearing. The internal market is also a matter of harmonisation. One in, twenty-seven out. It is probably on this topic that we need to work to build the regulations of tomorrow. I believe we are at a pivotal moment with successive crises – health, energy, geopolitics. As you have understood, we can no longer afford to be slow on this subject. It is high time to act and, above all, deliver at the level of both the co-legislators and the Commission. It is a shared responsibility for our companies, for our workers, for the future of the European model. In any case, the Commission is ready alongside the co-legislators.

Madam President, I shall be very brief. First, to tell you that, and you've all said it here, it's a shared responsibility. The internal market involves both the removal of national barriers and thus the construction of our internal market. As I said, over-transpositions, all texts that have been misinterpreted by national legislation and all texts that go against national legislation. The Commission will also take responsibility for infringements and we will multiply them. Secondly, we also have a shared responsibility here, and I invite parliamentarians who have spoken to put so much enthusiasm and pressure on national governments to be able to move forward on these issues. Terrible Ten which have been identified by the Commission. We need both political responsibility and, I must say, also responsibility on the part of Members of the European Parliament to seek regulatory and legislative convergence at national level. This is our shared responsibility with the institutions. And then we have a Commission agenda. The Capital Markets Union, the ability for us to find ways and means to create more convergence in the area of services. The ability also, on the 28 ᵉ regime, to advance as quickly as possible. And in this we propose to join with the Council and Parliament a form of interinstitutional agreement that will be proposed by the European Commission and the President of the Commission at the next Council in order to be able to link our responsibilities with a very ambitious date, 2026, which will allow us to move forward. Every year, almost €500 billion, or about 3% more growth, is soaring in the absence of a fully integrated single market. You see the economic stakes. You also see, in the geopolitical situation in which we are, the challenge of making this market work for 450 million consumers. So it's urgent. We have to finalise as many reforms as possible by this year 2026 and I hope that we will have the European Parliament on our side. The Commission is committed.

Madam President, Minister, on behalf of the European Commission, I am very pleased to take part in this debate on the integration of our single market. Europe's competitiveness is facing unprecedented challenges. In a context you know, an unstable geopolitical context, the single market is our best asset to counter external pressures, and it is time to build on its strengths: 450 million consumers and businesses ready to conquer this internal market. Through its annual report on the single market and competitiveness, the Commission presented a diagnosis of the state of the single market and the implementation of the major strategies launched last year. This diagnosis confirms that significant obstacles persist, particularly at national level. Removing the obstacles that currently stand in the way of the single market requires, firstly, a real qualitative leap in substance and, secondly, a constant commitment at national level to the method. This is precisely the objective of our Terrible Ten. This includes addressing the specific challenges of service sectors and sectors. For example, in the construction sector, 82 professions are regulated in only five Member States. When 22 Member States do not regulate these professions, it is legitimate to question the necessity of these regulations in the five Member States which concern these regulations. More than ever, we need real ownership of our internal market policy, because obstacles to the single market can be created at national level by delays in transposition, divergent implementation of EU law or over-transposition, which leads to clearly excessive administrative requirements. That is why we have proposed the first annual programme for the application of internal market rules. The objective is clear: identify priority areas for horizontal investigations and, if necessary, launch infringement procedures. The two areas identified this year are late payments in transactions between businesses and public authorities, and barriers to construction and installation services related to the green transition. These subjects may seem technical at times, less politically visible than a number of political debates on the internal market, but yet they touch on the very heart of the single market. They have a direct impact on our businesses. That is why we must take them collectively. Beyond the fight against these barriers, there is also a builder's agenda and an agenda for the construction of the internal market, because, as we know, the internal market has remained unfinished. Enrico Letta reminds us forcefully, we must build the Savings and Investment Union, build the Energy Union, build the Union of Circularity, Research, the 28 ᵉ Regime. All these new projects, which are essential to our competitiveness, the Commission proposes that Parliament and the Council list them, make a joint commitment and complete these projects without delay. Global events are imposing this on us and our citizens are asking us to do so, and this will be the meaning of the "One Market, One Europe" roadmap that the President will submit to Parliament and the Council at the next European Council.

Madam President, I shall be very brief, given the timetable for the end of our debates. However, I would point out one point: the broad support already given to the InvestEU scheme through the political groups you represent. I look forward to that. Again, we will also have these debates in the budget debate. InvestEU is part of the investment toolbox. Once again, we will work with the EIB and our partners to make strategic use of this enhanced investment capacity that you have given us. Our goal is clear, you have understood it: maximise the effect of each euro invested. Once again, at a time when public money is difficult, when we also have to be accountable to our European voters and citizens, this mechanism makes it possible to have leverage on guarantees and on the private sector, which is strong, and also to have a number of elements that guarantee projects that would not be viable in the private sector or guaranteed by private banks. So yes, I do not know many public guarantee projects that come on public investments. We take on private investment in this context, especially at a time when our competitiveness is at stake. We must invest in innovation, in decarbonisation, in new technologies. This will be the aim of the extra money in this scheme, which is almost unanimous here, in the light of the statements made by the political groups.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, in organising this debate, you wished to stress the importance of Omnibus II, which will take place tomorrow with a vote. I would also like to thank you for this organised debate and, in particular, to commend the work of our two rapporteurs and to congratulate you collectively on this result, because this omnibus is the first to arrive safely, and I hope that the others will follow with the same speed and perhaps the same spirit of understanding of the political forces that prevailed during our trilogues. This omnibus is important for equipping Europe with the means to serve our objectives. It is essential at a time when our budget is constrained and the next financial framework, alas, still far away. For this reason, the Commission had proposed to maximise the effectiveness of the InvestEU guarantee. This creates new policy and investment space with a number of priorities: succeeding in the energy transition, accelerating digital transformation, supporting growth and strategic technology. More than ever, it is essential to make the best use of public money to raise additional funding, especially in the private sector. The objective of InvestEU is to optimize this guarantee and to allow, especially in the private sector, to have additional money. You have rightly worked to ensure that new priorities are included in InvestEU's funding priorities such as housing. You also pointed out that this instrument is essential for supporting SMEs and, above all, you have snatched up, I must say, additional resources. They will arrive for the guarantee and for the advisory activities of the InvestEU hub. Thanks to your determination, for this multiplier instrument, we will be able to mobilise an additional strike force of around EUR 55 billion. Of course, these new measures also reflect a strong desire for simplification, by reducing administrative burdens, streamlining procedures and speeding up project implementation. These efforts will allow our companies, but also the EIB and public investment banks to focus on their primary vocation, I am thinking in particular of innovation, investing, developing and creating value. This win-win agreement gives more resources to services and our simplification objectives so that partners and users can use this instrument, which has economic value for projects that must be de-risked. Here we also have, as you know, a mechanism that is part of the competitiveness fund, which will be part of this toolbox, this instrument. I also hope that the parliamentarians who fought hard for this mechanism in these trilogues will be able to do so also in the framework of the competitiveness fund in the coming weeks and in the parliamentary debate. We will need it at a time when public money is increasingly scarce and we have more and more projects to invest in and to derisk. In any case, I will be at your side to work and make this project a success in the service of innovation and European competitiveness.

Madam President, I may start by saying that the European Union is neither in an agenda of decoupling from China, nor in an agenda that would add to us a number of new dependencies. And so, if I withdraw the speeches that seemed extremist to me on one side or the other – whether it is in 100% decoupling, which is also the American agenda in a way, or when I hear Mme Montero, who can apply for a Chinese passport after this vibrant pro-China speech that would add new dependencies – I think I can consider that there is a majority in this Chamber in favour of defending the European interest, substantially reducing our dependencies, organising our value chains and protecting our businesses. We will operate, and we will act with, four objectives. Firstly, to coordinate our European organisation so that in the event of shortages we do not compete with each other. We have already experienced this during certain crises and export or import shortages, especially during COVID. The European rare earths market design is necessary to avoid individual strategies or supply chain disruptions, as well as border closures between Member States. Secondly, to increase production in Europe. There, it is a question of funding, organization and speed. A new call for applications for strategic projects has been announced by the European Commission. It will be closed on 15 January and we will probably have to announce a number of additional projects to be able to free up in Europe new capacities in the field of rare earths and critical raw materials, which are necessary for our European industry. Thirdly, internationalize and diversify so as not to be 100% dependent on a single country. I was in South Africa to sign a memorandum of understanding with the South African authorities. I will also go to Latin America to do the same. We also have a partnership with Australia. They are partners, again, who are reliable, who have a democratic model that corresponds to our companies, with a rule of law where their rights are respected, with competent courts, and we can much more easily and much more confidently forge links in the supply chains between European industry and these trusted partners. Fourthly, this was mentioned in each other's interventions, developing circularity. Far too many raw materials hardly enter European territory, as we have just said, but too many easily leave European territory once consumed and are then recycled outside and returned to European territory. Here too, we need to build axes of circularity, to build industries that can recycle these raw materials to prevent them from leaving Europe. A final point: It is innovation and our ability to do without rare earths, to do without a number of critical materials. I believe that substitution must also be a European strategy. There we have tools, Horizon, and also a tool to be able to invest in research and development. The best rare land is the one we don't use, in a way. When I look at the figures for dependence on these rare earths, today our strategy for research and development on the substitution of these materials must also be a real European strategy in the future. Here, we will have the opportunity, obviously, after the announcements of the Commission, to exchange on RESourceEU. You understand, what we did on Russian gas, what we did during COVID, we have to do on critical raw materials. We need to join forces. I retain from this discussion that there is a large majority, in all groups, to be able to support a pragmatic approach that defends the interests of Europeans with less naivety. To refine this plan, I hope your support. I thank Parliament and all the speakers for this very encouraging discussion. For the rest, we will have the opportunity to discuss all the proposals that the European Commission will make from 3 December.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Minister, on behalf of the European Commission, I would first like to thank you for putting this item and this debate on the agenda. It is essential at a time when Europe's economic security is being tested. Let's go back to the context first. What happened last April and October on rare earths is not new. Europe experienced the first signs of Chinese restrictions on gallium and germanium as early as 2023. And it is a safe bet that this tension on raw materials will only last, given recent developments. We have seen that export licences are already restricted. It is also a safe bet that Europe is not only the collateral victim of geopolitical blackmail between the United States and China. We are also directly targeted. The more we defend our independence agenda, the greater the pressure on our value chains. Finally, it is certain that today this situation is alarming. This is evidenced by the fact that export licences are granted on a dropper basis, that deliveries are lagging behind, so that entire industrial sectors in Europe are also under pressure. I am thinking in particular of the automotive sector and energy, under the threat of supply disruptions. Other sectors are also simply excluded. This is the case with the defence. Increasingly, licences are being granted at the price of information that is often – and worryingly – covered by industrial secrecy. These requirements are akin to a racket, if we take all the requests that are made to our manufacturers to obtain these export licenses. In view of this situation, I would like to underline and welcome the diplomatic efforts of Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, which have made it possible to suspend some of the restrictions and, in particular, to speed up the processing of the licences that were blocked for our European industrialists. So we have a 12-month reprieve, an agreement between the United States and China, but I'm not sure we have 12 months in that period. This advance is only partial, probably very temporary, and it is time for Europe to strengthen its game, to redouble its efforts, that is to say, vis-à-vis China, to reduce dependencies. For this – as the European Parliament is well aware – the European Union already has a solid legislative basis, including the Critical Raw Materials Act. It clearly sets out the European ambition, with specific objectives in terms of domestic production and international diversification. Since the beginning of the mandate, we have also been putting in place the means to achieve the objectives that the co-legislators have set. We now have 60 strategic projects: 47 in Europe, 13 abroad. A new set of projects will be announced in mid-January. Lithium, copper, extraction, recycling within the European Union are moving forward. These are projects for which our European response is strong and for which our dependencies are shrinking more and more. They therefore require unwavering support from national, local authorities and the private sector. We have also multiplied our partnerships abroad, since the reduction of our dependencies also requires new diversifications so that our supplies are not 100% Chinese. I am thinking in particular of Ukraine, Norway, Australia, Canada or other countries. In South Africa, this week, we signed a memorandum of understanding, and with the authorities of that country we have launched new cooperation on specific projects, on specific technologies and on production sites that will also allow us to reduce our dependencies. I can assure you that there is a real desire on the part of other international partners to work with Europe, especially since Europe takes a very different approach from its competitors. It is not simply a question of extracting local resources, but, on the contrary, it is also a question of producing, processing and refining local resources in order to maximize the benefits for local economies. These are therefore win-win agreements that are being developed by Europe, on which we must rely in order to be competitive in this sector as well. It is about integrating our value chains with perspectives and states that respect our values, that is to say also our social and environmental standards, democracies where the law is applied, both for our companies that will source there and for theirs, which are also in a situation where the rule of law is respected, both in Europe and among our partners. Europe has values. In this international context, it puts the means to be able to participate and maintain important relations with its partners to precisely reduce its dependencies. Europe also played its role as a whistleblower at the G20 this week, as the issue of critical raw materials was one of the topics we collectively addressed in our value chains, with an important commitment: more diversification and more cooperation. All this only reinforces our conviction: Critical raw materials are a test and will probably be the test of the mandate – with heavy supply risks, but also geopolitical and industrial risks for Europeans. In this context, as you know, we are working in three directions for the December announcements. The first is to speed up integration and coordination within the internal market to avoid fragmentation in the event of a shortage of raw materials. This is clearly one of the legacies of the crises we have experienced in recent years, especially with COVID. Secondly, we need to speed up production and recycling in Europe, which means higher funding for our strategic projects. It also means mobilising trade instruments to keep raw materials, help reduce our dependencies and structure new partnerships with other countries. Finally, it is a matter of accelerating diversification. It also means having reliable partners, as I told you, who respect the rule of law and who are able to contribute to our independence or, at least, to our autonomy on the 17 critical raw materials that are targeted in European law. We are also working on a European Critical Raw Materials Centre. It will be the cockpit, in a way, of European supply, on the model of the Japanese JOGMEC. It must also allow us to assess needs, to buy together, to store critical minerals in Europe. All this only works if European companies also play the game and integrate the issue of economic security, their lines and their supplies into their working dynamics. In a nutshell, it only works if our European companies stop buying 100% Chinese on raw materials. We have a collective responsibility, between European institutions and local and national authorities. The cost of independence is high, but it is lower than that of dependency. All this pushes us to speed things up. It's not too late, but time is running out. Our competitors are also moving up a gear on diversifying the supply of raw materials and domestic exploitation. I hope to be able to count on your support, on the support of the European Parliament, to be able to accelerate in view of the construction and the announcements concerning RESourceEU which, as you have understood, will allow us to accelerate our movement.

A new legislative framework adapted to the challenges of our time is perhaps the red thread that you all mentioned in this debate. Mr López Aguilar, all the Commissioners of the European Commission are working together, including with Commissioner McGrath, on this subject, so that we can also provide a coherent framework. I would also point out that we share a number of objectives in this Chamber and in the European Commission: sustainability of digitalisation, greater consistency in the application of assessment and conformity procedures and more effective application of our rules. I am putting aside the subject of control, which is obviously an important subject and which perhaps also determines the application of these rules, and we will have a whole debate. I hope that the debate on customs, the new regulatory framework on which we are currently working in trilogue with a number of parliamentarians, and the Council, can be concluded as soon as possible. A proposal has been made in this direction and must also complement our legislative framework in order to be able to give some form of effectiveness to the new rules that will be found. Rest assured that the Commission is taking your recommendations fully into account as we prepare this future regulatory framework for products. Thanks again to rapporteur David Cormand for his analysis, expertise and recommendations; Thank you also to all the parliamentarians who worked on these compromises in IMCO. This is a new page of European product legislation that we are writing collectively. Know that you can count on the full involvement of the Commission in the coming weeks.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the European Commission, I would first of all like to commend the work of rapporteur Cormand and, more broadly, of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. This own-initiative report comes at a very opportune time in our discussions, including in the current situation. It has been more than 15 years since the new product legislative framework entered into force and over time it has established itself as a cornerstone of the internal market, as the guarantor of the safety and conformity of products circulating within the European Union. That said, in the face of the new realities facing the internal market - and, Mr rapporteur, you have mentioned a number of these realities - it is clear that this framework must evolve. In this respect, the European Commission fully shares the positions of the European Parliament in this report. You know these new realities: digitalisation, e-commerce, fast fashion, including the e- and circular economy as well, which will need to be developed. These are phenomena sometimes desired by the legislator – we have transformations to make – or suffered. They have profoundly transformed our relationship with products, both in terms of their design and the uses we make of them. These changes pose many challenges for the European Union. We must also be able to tackle a number of legislative initiatives, and I am thinking in particular of consumer safety, the competitiveness of our businesses and the integrity of the internal market. The European Commission therefore proposes to revise the three main pillars of European product legislation, the new legislative framework, market surveillance and the standardisation system. Our ambition is to carry out these revisions in parallel, with the aim, of course, of presenting a package within a year in order to create a coherent regulatory framework for products. This package will take the form of an act for European products, both to facilitate placing on the market and to increase compliance. Concretely, our ambition is clearly based on three main objectives: Revise our standardization rules, you understand, to make the system more agile, faster, more balanced as well. To ensure that our marketing rules are also adapted to new business models and can also respond to counterfeits. Thirdly, to strengthen our market surveillance rules in order to protect our internal market from unfair practices and to prevent any products that do not comply with our rules from entering the European market. Of course, the Commission will rely on the analysis of the recommendations made by this report and by the European Parliament. I am thinking in particular of those aimed at ensuring the consistency and traceability and durability of products. Mr MEP, you mentioned this, and therefore, on behalf of the European Commission, I would once again like to welcome this work. This week's vote will also send a positive message, a strong political signal in favour of an internal market for products that is both reliable and resilient in the face of the challenges of tomorrow.

Madam President, allow me first of all to return to a number of very relevant arguments and comments that have been made in this debate. I would like to address the conditions under which we need to strengthen the internal market, and then the two major projects that I mentioned in the introduction. The key condition, if we want to strengthen the internal market, is to protect our external borders. It is this balance that we must find collectively. Protection and conditions for entry into the internal market need to be determined, strengthened and strengthened. This is the subject of the text you voted on in the previous parliamentary term and which is currently on the Council's table. I am thinking of the organisation of our customs at European level, the controls at our ports and airports, and our ability to ensure that European companies can produce under conditions similar to those of imported products arriving on our market. This is the fundamental element that will enable us to convince the sceptics of the internal market and a decisive condition for moving forward. The second element concerns construction sites. I mentioned two of them. The first is at the national level. You all pointed it out: the Terrible 10's, a number of barriers, which we ourselves have identified in the Commission, have been identified. The result is a document which lists all the barriers within the internal market for each Member State. (The speaker shows a document) You can see that there is red for everyone, including friends of the internal market. This means that many countries have to do their homework. We must accompany them in this task, which must be conducted barrier by barrier, to eliminate all the red from this picture. As members who have spoken have pointed out, these barriers are tariffs or tariff equivalents. A red box is a cost to a company, the cost of doing business in another country. This has a direct impact on small and medium-sized enterprises, which are our new industrial fabric and our ability to create growth. This is the first project, and I will propose to the Council a method for following this pattern at ministerial level in order to move forward gradually, but very concretely. The second project is European. As I said, the President of the Commission has made commitments, starting with a commitment of responsibility. We have set the 2028 deadline to open a number of sectors that are now national: capital markets, services, energy, telecommunications and the 28th regime. These are areas for which the Commission is responsible for proposing legislation. We have made a commitment to undertake these reforms before 2028, before the end of our mandate. What I am also proposing to the European Parliament and the Council is to conclude an interinstitutional agreement on this issue, in particular on the 2028 deadline, in order to share the responsibilities for achieving our objectives and covering these areas before the end of the parliamentary term. As you have all said, this is not just a matter for the Commission; a strong commitment from all institutions is needed. The European Parliament must allow us to move forward quickly; the Council, to remove the internal barriers in practice and to make progress on the issues I have just mentioned. For my part, I undertake to present this roadmap to you before submitting it to the Council, so that we can gather your views, your recommendations, and modify a number of criteria. This will enable the European Parliament to play its full role as a spur. I know I can count on this institution, since there is consensus on this subject. We must now convince beyond this assembly.

Madam President, Minister, on behalf of the European Commission, I am pleased to speak again in this debate on our single market and the measures that need to be taken to strengthen it. At the last plenary session, we had already addressed these issues in connection with Anna-Maja Henriksson's excellent report. Moreover, the points of convergence between your report and this strategy on the single market were already numerous. Since then, in her State of the Union address, the President of the Commission has announced an initiative, a roadmap to complete the single market. It will cover six specific areas. It is on this subject and probably especially on the method to be used that I would like to devote my intervention today. We are living in a time of economic uncertainty, trade and geopolitical tension. However, the single market offers both a bulwark of protection and a lever for growth that remains clearly underexploited, because too many obstacles are holding back our European market. The imperative to make a qualitative leap probably calls for two types of actions. If I want to summarise our method, it is firstly to undertake major projects at European level, which is the meaning of the roadmap announced by the President of the Commission – I will come back to this – and secondly to demonstrate daily commitment at national level – this is the objective of the strategy presented on 21 May – and to follow up on what we called the Terrible 10s. My services are in the process of preparing a scoreboard that reviews the situation for each of the barriers in each of the countries of the European Union. Taken one by one, these barriers can sometimes seem totally anecdotal and their impact totally limited on growth. This is the case, for example, with national labelling rules which are based on a good intention to promote a national product often, but which oblige companies to adapt to each of the national and international markets, which has an economic impact on our market. This is also the case for recycling when, for example, each State adopts a different or even divergent definition of waste. This is still the case when states, concerned for good reasons about the abuse of European rules, impose additional reporting obligations on posted work, for example. Accumulation over accumulation. The accumulation of all these measures constrains the internal market and there are many of them. There are several hundred barriers to entry. So we need everyone's commitment: the Commission to monitor, prevent and launch infringement procedures as soon as necessary; the European Parliament and the Member States to avoid measures that further fragment the internal market. And within this framework, we will propose initiatives, including so that everyone can be engaged with the ambition and goal of reducing these national barriers. Let us come to the major European projects. In her State of the Union address, as I said in the introduction, the President of the Commission announced an internal market roadmap for 2028. I say 2028, since the Commission's responsibility is to finish this work by 2028, and it is a form of responsibility to have put this date before the end of our mandate. This empowers the Commission and collectively gives us the responsibility to deliver on the themes that the President has raised: capital, services, energy, telecommunications, the 28th regime, and the 5th freedom of knowledge and innovation. Texts and proposals to strengthen our internal market. These are sectors where the market remains national and not European. This is a challenge and a responsibility of the Commission. To tackle it is to reconnect with the ambition and momentum of Jacques Delors. This level of ambition requires a strong, unprecedented political commitment, and I therefore call on all of us to define together – Parliament, Council, Commission – objectives and the vehicles to achieve them. Let everyone then take responsibility. The Commission to present proposals within an agreed timeframe, the co-legislator to address them as soon as possible, and then follow up these initiatives together and act to remove unjustified national barriers. It is therefore a proposal that I make to you: Let us build this integrated internal market, which you all want, together. Let us take the commitment at the highest level of our respective institutions, with an institutional agreement, why not in the form of an inter-institutional declaration, to create ownership and real political momentum.

Mr President, I will come back to the figures, since many have been stated. EUR 2 565 billion is the figure resulting from the 2003 public contracts. Of these 2,565 billion euros, 600 billion are within the European thresholds. It is therefore the responsibility of parliamentarians to assess, including whether these European thresholds are the right ones, whether more public procurement should be included in the European thresholds. But you are right, 600 billion euros a year is about three times the budget of the European Union, which is about 190 billion euros if we smooth out all the budget years. And so, yes, public procurement is strategic because the European public procurement strategy, if it is well-constructed, if it is legible, if it follows the recommendations we all want - transparency to avoid corruption, thresholds to allow social, environmental clauses and a form of European preference over a number of strategic sectors - could allow us to move forward with an amount that somehow replicates the European budget. All this to tell you that the review process is important. It is now well under way since, in the coming weeks, the Commission will publish its evaluation report on the current framework. This evaluation will be followed by a public consultation on the impact assessment. This will allow all stakeholders to contribute very concretely to the policy debate on this public procurement debate, and the full impact assessment will then be published, prepared for a legislative proposal. We have also heard calls for a tighter timetable. Throughout the process, the work of Parliament's recommendations that I have mentioned, all the legislative work that has already been carried out by this Chamber, as well as the local elected representatives, will be fully taken into account and will also provide very valuable guidance for our proposals, I undertake to do so. And the direction of the conclusions will also be taken into account in these conclusions. The objective is clear: make public procurement a strategic tool, as I told you, for competitiveness, but also for resilience. Our idea is, of course, to maximise the value of the EUR 600 billion covered by European rules, to the benefit of our fellow citizens, European sovereignty and our industry. You can count on the European Commission to make this review a success and an asset for the future of Europe.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the European Commission, I would like to commend the work done by the IMCO, INTA and EMPL Committees on this subject. I know that the many and sometimes complex discussions surrounding this own-initiative report also reflect the importance of the subject we are going to deal with collectively. The revision of a 2014 directive has a very clear objective: make public procurement a strategic lever in its own right, in an uncertain geopolitical context. More than €600 billion are covered by public procurement law every year. This is equivalent to almost three times the annual budget of the European Union. It is therefore essential to integrate public procurement into our investment strategy in a coherent way. But, to activate this lever, it is necessary to the support of local authorities. They must be careful, they must want and they must be able to apply it. As you know, and I will start with this, the current legal framework is complex, fragmented and, at this stage, leads to difficulties of interpretation. Moreover, this framework remains essentially governed by the lowest price criterion. The price must obviously remain in the equation, it is also the management of taxpayers' money and public money, but our political choices must not be made at the expense of quality or a longer-term vision. Finally, public procurement also needs to be modernised. That is also the Commission's conviction. This work starts with a simplification effort, making the most of the potential of digital tools, also putting more agility, more flexibility in all public procurement procedures. However, this agility must not make us give up transparency. Importantly, there is fair competition between service offerings. In addition, we must promote an approach that integrates criteria such as quality, but also innovation, sustainability and the social issue. When it comes to competitiveness and resilience, the idea of introducing a European preference also comes to mind very quickly. At a time when global geopolitics is in turmoil, the promotion of European strategic interests is of existential importance to us. In a way, we need a European public procurement strategy, which we are missing at this stage. There is also a need to ensure that European technologies and products in specific – most strategic – sectors are not relegated to second place. They must also be valued in these offers. European preference for the Commission does not mean national favouritism. The whole challenge of this reform, as you have understood, is to bring about a real internal market for offers and calls for tenders, with a real competitive bidding process allowing European participants and players to make strategic public purchases. This vision must represent a real paradigm shift for us. We must rise to the challenges, particularly geopolitical, that we are experiencing. I know that we can count on the European Parliament to work in this direction.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, as the Commission adopts a series of key measures for the European chemicals sector, I thank you for choosing to organise this debate, as chemistry is the mother of all industries. It is present everywhere, in all strategic and industrial sectors, from our military defence to our medicines and connected objects, which have become ubiquitous in our daily lives. However, it is also an industry that is not doing well. Let us start by listing a number of figures that reposition the industrial challenge we are experiencing. Chemistry has seen a drop of almost 50% in its global turnover over the last 20 years. She therefore needs resolute support to respond to the various pressures she is facing. Supporting chemistry also means supporting 90% of the industrial value chain, which underpins our European competitiveness. This is what is at stake! It should also be noted that this sector represents 1.2 million direct jobs in Europe. However, like other sectors, chemistry faces high energy prices, low demand, unfair competition, often from Asia, but also regulatory complexity, the costs of decarbonisation – which we chose to steer during the last mandate – and the financial pressure of ending free carbon allowances. The plan that the Commission, through Commissioner Roswall and myself, is proposing is to keep our steam crackers and production sites in Europe, to make them cleaner and also to use decarbonisation as a lever to modernise our industry and production apparatus in Europe. The plan is based on four pillars: support for the European productive apparatus and innovation; lower energy prices and supporting industry in its decarbonisation; demand support; simplification. With the creation of an Alliance for Critical Chemicals, we will focus on actions towards the most strategic molecules and sites, which could put us at risk of addiction. For example, we are 80% dependent on methanol, a compound found in some cleaning products and cosmetics. Acetic acid, on the other hand, found in ethylene, is also part of our strategy. We will issue a roadmap on the identification and mapping of these strategic molecules, to allow, in the vein of what we did with critical raw materials, to choose which molecules Europe needs to be able to supply its industry. Then, we will accompany the creation of essential chemical sites. These industrial ecosystems, often already rooted in our territories, will be established where industrial bases, skills, know-how and infrastructure are located. We will have to modernise these bases with local forces – industries, start-ups, researchers and local public authorities – and we will also attract new elements of innovation, employment and funding, including with European and regional funds, which we also propose to be able to mobilise. Internationally, the Alliance will also allow us to further develop new markets for European chemistry. It must also help us to protect the internal market for chemicals from unfair competition from foreign producers. Since 2024, the Commission has launched more than 18 investigations into imports of chemicals under trade defence instruments. It is also proof that the strategy that was positioned in the Clean Industry Pact on the more frequent use of our trade instruments is currently at work. The second lever of our action relates to measures to reduce energy prices, including a possible extension to certain chemical sites of the State aid scheme to compensate for the increase in energy prices. We will also ask for flexibility for the chemical sector, in particular by speeding up authorisation procedures for the modernisation of certain industrial sites and moving towards a genuine European market for the circular economy – my colleague will probably mention this in her conclusion. Third lever: In support of demand, we will introduce European content and sustainability criteria in public and private procurement. We will also open innovation hubs to enable the emergence of new players in the field of advanced chemistry. Preserving chemistry, turning it towards innovation and new markets, and building the chemistry of the future: This is the strategy we propose to you. Finally, we will need to simplify our rules while maintaining a high level of consumer and environmental protection. This could lead to an anticipated saving of €400 million per year for the sector, or almost €1 million per day. We also propose to revise the regulation of the European Chemicals Agency in order to meet financial, but also governance and speed challenges, through the modernisation and simplification of the REACH Regulation. In conclusion, I would like to say a word about perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances – PFAS. We expect scientific results from the European Chemicals Agency, and, as I often say, we rely on science and only science to be able to make decisions. However, we must move quickly and give visibility to the industrial sector and consumers. Some applications of PFAS are essential, and it may be difficult to do without them completely. So as long as there is no alternative, our manufacturers will have no choice but to continue using them, especially in key sectors such as defence and clean industries. These, ladies and gentlemen, are the four pillars on which the measures adopted today, a few moments ago, at the College of Commissioners are based. Commissioner Roswall and I are now happy to listen to your initial reactions and work with you on the implementation of this plan.

Mr President, I thank the speakers and Parliament for this debate on the Clean Industry Pact, which goes far beyond, as we have understood, a simple policy on decarbonisation, and which is a vision of what we want to do with our European industries in the next thirty or forty years. What are the historical industries that we want to safeguard for questions of sovereignty, also for questions of economic strategy, and employment issues at the social level? What are the strategies of tomorrow to bring out new sectors, new growth markets? The organisation of all this requires – the message has been well understood – speed and flexibility, especially at a time when the ongoing trade negotiations raise a number of concerns in private markets. It also requires reactivity, which is not simple, to be able to cope with transatlantic difficulties and mood movements that sometimes escape us in communication and in the media. I would perhaps like to conclude this debate by saying that, yes, the Commission will show flexibility, because the granting of permits, the exemption for emissions in the construction phases will undoubtedly be done in accordance with the environmental clauses and standards that we set during the last mandate, but also with the flexibility necessary to be able to achieve our objectives. We will of course also, in the social dimension - you have been a number of people talking about this - contain the impact on the changes and the acceleration of these changes via the new industries that we will experience. On skills in particular, we are counting on the updating of the Skills Union Strategy and we are therefore also counting on the European Parliament. On the changes as well, we plan to rely on the European Social Fund and the Just Transition Fund, and this is also the spirit of the Clean Industry Pact: both to look at all the economic components of competitiveness and the social and societal impact of our industrial and technological transformation. As you will have understood, the Clean Industry Pact makes competitiveness an imperative, yes, but that is not the goal in itself. Our goal is European prosperity, and this dimension must also be taken into account in our industrial policy. I would like to thank Parliament once again for these debates and in particular the ITRE Committee for all its work. You will have to analyse and debate in the coming months a number of texts that will come to the co-legislators, texts that are very important for the future of Europe, the industrial future. In any case, you will always have, in my person and on behalf of the Commission, the necessary support to maintain this ambition and accelerate the momentum.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you, rapporteur, for the time and, of course, we share and I share, personally, as you know, the urgency of the situation and our ability to deliver more and more quickly, in a world that is changing and that also imposes on us a form of agility and flexibility that was not the case until a few months ago. You therefore raise the essential issue of the implementation of the Clean Industry Pact in this oral question. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome and thank all the Members of the ITRE Committee, the rapporteurs and the shadow rapporteurs who have also contributed to this text, in particular you, Mr rapporteur, and I do not detract from what you said and the introduction you made. Since the beginning of this mandate – just over six months now – the European Commission has been working hard to revitalise European industry. European industry has become the top priority in the ambitions and responsiveness of this new Commission. We are therefore launching a first implementation package of the Pact, notably on State aid (CISAF), which will be presented by the European Commission as early as next week, and will be accompanied in particular by a communication published on the same day, covering both energy, taxation and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). I am also pleased that a trilogue agreement was reached today on the simplification of the CBAM, for which Parliament supported the Commission's proposal. This need to act quickly, perhaps we owe it first, and I will begin with this, to our industry, because we have changed worlds, as I said in the introduction, and we must meet a twofold objective: firstly, to strengthen our internal market and competitiveness, but also to ensure the coherence of our action in terms of economic security and diversification. The Clean Industry Pact is the first ever European industrial strategy. Here I would like to recall a few fundamentals: the method, the strategic dialogue, the sectoral plans on which the Commission has committed itself to publish texts and on which we will speed up the elements that require, in particular, decisions by the co-legislators, European preference, demand stimulation, the protection of our industries - as you recalled, Mr rapporteur - and funding. On this financial aspect, I would also like to remind you in the introduction that the Competitiveness Fund will also give us a new architecture within the framework of the new budget, more legible, more strategic, and to which we will also be able to endorse many measures for which we need, in terms of steering European industrial policy, to have both flexibility and a capacity to react. This new approach requires a steady pace and agility to deliver results and this is why the Commission will launch pilot auctions on decarbonisation and heat products in industrial processes at the end of this year. It will have an existing budget of €1 billion under the Innovation Fund and can be accompanied by national contributions through the auction-as-a-service mechanism. Beyond the question of financing, there are obviously those of investment and investment conditions, because for the decarbonised industrial future to be in Europe, we must be pioneers in the lead markets and have the reflex of resilience and "made in Europe". We will continue the momentum with three new instruments: the future regulation to accelerate industrial decarbonisation, the revised public procurement framework, on which I have been asked many times, both in committee and in this Chamber, and the future regulation on the circular economy, which is also expected and which is a market in itself for many companies. To be coherent, it will also be necessary to respond to external challenges. Economic security is more than ever at the centre of European industrial policy and concerns. We currently have more than 200 trade defence measures. They affect, for example, batteries, electric vehicles or wind turbines. And we can boast promising results with a practical basis and deployment that achieves up to 90% of the targets on these schemes that are already foreseen by the Commission. However, as you said, we must continue our efforts, and I am sure that the momentum generated by the Clean Industry Pact will help us to do so. In any case, be sure, ladies and gentlemen, that the European Commission, for its part, is committed to maintaining its ambitions and increasing the tempo, given the urgency of the situation.

Mr President, first of all, I would like to go back to the context. Few interventions mentioned the context, but it is important in this strategy. The European internal market has become a safe haven for European companies in the event of market closures. It is important because we must prepare for a market closure on the other side of the Atlantic and reduce our dependence on China. These two axes are also perfectly in line with our strategy, which targets mid-cap companies, i.e. midcaps, which are at the heart of the objective that we have collectively set ourselves, companies that are able to Europeanise in the internal market. The internal market strategy is therefore perfectly consistent with the simplification package proposed to you today and presented to the College of Commissioners this morning. Secondly, there is a change of method. The horizontal method which has been used in the Commission for some 15 years now – and which was adopted by almost all my predecessors for the internal market strategy – has borne fruit for years. However, we can clearly see, in the particular moment we are living in, that there are still specific barriers, sector by sector, profession by profession. This horizontal strategy is therefore no longer effective enough on a daily basis and does not allow us, together with the Member States, to remove a number of barriers. This is why the internal market strategy is changing and opting for a sector-by-sector and business-by-business approach. We have also proposed the appointment of one sherpa per Member State in order to be able, precisely, to elevate this discussion to the level of the Member States and to the political level and no longer to have only administrative and technical discussions on the question of the remaining barriers. We have also changed our strategy regarding our ability to move forward on the recognition of qualifications. From now on, we will not wait for an agreement at 27 to be able to move forward; the coalition of volunteers will be able to propose a mutual recognition agreement between a few Member States in order to be able to take all the others. It is a healthy pressure, an incentive for some, but at least a different method of moving forward in a different way, at a time when barriers are still blocking and when, in the current economic context, we have to use the market of 450 million consumers. This is the best way to gain growth points and organise our European economy. Thirdly, we keep in mind all the components of the internal market: goods, services, the necessary simplification (that of the savings and capital union, digitalization, digitization), with perhaps two red threads, if I were to summarize our strategy: firstly, the economic impact, the social impact, the territorial impact, and the necessary simplification, which is the common thread of the European Commission's policy on the competitiveness of our sectors. We have made an ambitious proposal, which today needs to be implemented as quickly as possible, both by this new method that we are proposing, but also in the texts that you will have to analyse, vote on and amend here in the coming months. You know the Commission's position: we are all committed to unlocking the full potential of the Single Market. As you have understood, a collective effort is needed with the Member States and with the European Parliament. So let us take the plunge, that of the internal market on all the components that I have just mentioned. In any case, the Commission will play its full part and I am sure that Parliament will play its part with the same commitment.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I had the opportunity at the last plenary session in Strasbourg to hear your proposals and expectations on the single market. It is therefore an honour to come back to you today to present the recommendations and the Single Market Strategy put forward by the College of Commissioners in recent weeks, which it has just adopted. I wanted to thank parliamentarians for their contribution of two weeks ago, which was used to feed into the debates and to co-construct the text that I will present to you. In times of economic uncertainty and trade tension, the single market must be our strength. This is the conviction of the European Commission and I say to entrepreneurs: Choosing Europe also means accessing 450 million consumers, the collective strength of the world's most skilled workers, and a GDP of EUR 18 trillion. This formidable market, however, we must energize it, make it stronger. This is what we propose in this strategy. First, we tackle the ten most damaging obstacles, the "terrible ten" in English. Gone are the major declarations of intent: Here, we are getting into the heart of the matter and into what companies, but also consumers and workers, are denouncing. We have also heard criticism of the complexity of our law. In response, the Commission launched an unprecedented 'simplification shock'. A dedicated omnibus package will also reduce red tape – I will say a few words in conclusion. We will also improve the legislative framework for the market in goods and services, an idea which you also expressed during the debates on the internal market. We intend to take advantage, for all businesses, of all the priorities that we have formulated in this strategy for goods and services, but also for the financial dimension, which is at the heart of the financing of our economy. First, when it comes to the goods market, we will allow repaired products to have a second life in the single market. We will also create a single market for waste, thanks to the future circular economy law. We will also tackle the fragmentation of packaging and labelling rules through more harmonised and modern solutions. Beyond these efforts, it is equally crucial to strengthen the internal market in the face of abuses from outside, in particular by improving the coordination of our market surveillance authorities and by giving ourselves the means to accelerate on the issue of standards where necessary, because, in the international race for technologies, the issue of standardisation is crucial for our future, for our ability to assert our industrial know-how. As I said during the presentation of this text to the College, standardisation is a fundamental issue. Therefore, the Commission proposes to recover its direct competence, both to strongly encourage standardisation bodies to take more resolute and rapid action, but also to use it, if necessary, from an economic or even European competitiveness perspective. Secondly, with regard to the services market, we also propose a new approach. We are targeting specific sectors that can bring significant added value to the European economy and contribute in particular to the twin digital and environmental transitions. The Construction Services Act will improve access to the cross-border market, the European Delivery Act will modernise the rules in the postal and parcel sector and we will facilitate repair services. We will take action for the energy, telecommunications, transport and financial services sectors, as I mentioned earlier, and we will facilitate the temporary provision of cross-border services where the provider is already certified in a Member State. Together with my colleague Roxana Mînzatu, we will also seek to reconcile mobility and safety on a subject such as the posting of workers, which is a very politically sensitive subject, on which we have made good progress and on which we will have to make further progress, perhaps by adopting new perspectives on this balance between mobility and safety of workers. In terms of qualifications, we will extend automatic recognition to more professions. We will also change the method for the recognition of qualifications. This will require moving forward with a group of voluntary countries and then extending the momentum on this issue to all Member States. It may be recalled that, out of 5,700 regulated professions, only seven currently practise recognition of qualifications at the level of the 27. These figures show us the considerable work that remains to be done on this subject. Finally, with regard to SMEs, while the single market should be the framework for the growth of our SMEs, start-ups and small businesses – which are most affected by the fragmentation of our market due to their limited resources – they are often discouraged by export barriers to other Member States. For example, the Single Market Strategy includes a new online tool that makes it easier for SMEs to identify their status. This recognition will enable them, in particular, to benefit from the specific measures intended for them in all the Member States. We will also introduce a new definition of small mid-caps and, in particular, open up certain advantages granted today to SMEs for this category of companies, which have a growth perspective within the internal market and which, at the same time, support territories and an entire business ecosystem, often far from capitals, in rural areas and cities that are often in economic difficulty. Beyond the actions announced by the Commission, the success of this Single Market Strategy will be measured by its implementation, and therefore by the involvement of the Member States, which must play the game by respecting European law, without overtransposing it. The Commission will also ensure that any non-transposition and infringements we may find are punished. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that, and I know I can count on you, on the European Parliament, to make progress on these issues. In this context, the Council and Parliament are probably the best allies of the internal market.

Mr President, Mr Sieper, I am sorry, I will speak French, but I believe you have the translation. Perhaps I will give you a few convictions as a result of this debate. First of all, one conviction is that we cannot look at our internal market strategy in silos, as has probably been the case a great deal in recent mandates. Given the current international context, a new economic balance needs to be found. It is a question both of working towards a more internal market and therefore, I repeat, of going further with regard to goods and services or the Capital Markets Union, of organising and facilitating the movement of goods and services more widely, of removing the barriers which, in particular, constrain the movement of goods and goods, within the framework of our work and the competences of the European Union. It is also a question of working, at national level, on the differences in regulations that create constraints and - I think one of you has quite rightly explained this - on the equivalent in customs duties of the various national regulations, since it is topical to speak in terms of equivalent in customs duties and this shows that it is urgent that we act. 40-50% tariffs on goods, more than 100% on services: I see the cost to one company of producing in one European country and marketing in another. The paradox of the situation is that it is probably more profitable today to produce in China and export a small package to European countries than to put in place all the European regulations to market from France, Germany, Poland or Italy. That is what we need to address in the coming months. At the same time, we must protect the external trade borders of the European Union and therefore make progress on customs reform. It is now blocked in the Council and the Member States must move forward, as I said in the introduction to this debate. I will devote a great deal of political capital to ensuring that customs reform can progress at the same pace as our reform and strategy in the internal market. On the one hand, liberalisation and breaking down the remaining barriers in the internal market, on the other, protecting European borders with regard to e-commerce, in particular by moving forward on the issue of control. I think that's the right balance that we need to be able to find collectively in this house. Another balance – the last one, I will leave it to that – that we will also be working on in the coming months and weeks concerns the new trade agreements and the diversification that we need to make while the world is increasingly protectionist. Yes, agreements with new countries, covering specific sectors, must be found. The President of the Commission is working with my colleague Maroš Šefčovič to find new opportunities for our industries and businesses outside the European Union, provided that we can operate a European preference and therefore choose "made in Europe" in a number of strategic sectors. To sum up, here is, in a way, our new balance, which we must be able to find among ourselves, collectively: both the deepening of the internal market, the protection of external borders in relation to e-commerce, to protect our market, and the diversification of trade agreements, at a time when trade is becoming increasingly complicated and the tariff war and the customs war between China and the United States can have a significant impact on our economy, in return for a European preference over a number of public purchases. In this context, you will have to work on the public procurement reform that the Commission will present in the coming months. I thank Parliament, especially President Cavazzini, for this discussion and, once again, I will be back with you to present the Commission's Internal Market Strategy very formally on 21 May in Brussels.