20
May
2026
Watch
High time to deliver on the Single Market, providing certainty and predictability for EU businesses and quality jobs (continuation of debate)
Dear Chair, Dear Commissioner, It is clear that the single market is clearly the largest economic resource for the European Union and, if used properly, it would indeed be a normal basis for our future prosperity, for our jobs, for our social model and also for its famous competitiveness. But I would like to talk about one other thing, namely the single market for defence materials and defence procurement. Recently, we know that since the start of Russia’s full-scale aggression, we have increased defence spending quite significantly. This is €381 billion in 2025, investment €130 billion, but only 18% of it, colleagues, we buy together. And the result is extremely, extremely sad. We have long been committed to doing more. This is preceded by European Union programmes such as EDIP and EDIRPA. But still it is a story that we buy weapons separately, we use different military systems, we duplicate expenses, and in the end we really lose the potential that this could bring us economy of scale, our single market as the backbone of the European economy.