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)
Madam President! Honestly, if I sat in the Commission and had helped to sit on my hands and actively destroy the European market for which millions of Europeans are fighting every day, I think I would be ashamed. For the Commission, together with the centre-left, has been pursuing a policy for many years that has put a brake on Europe's development, putting a brake on the fact that the internal market could actually deliver what we want. The whole cornerstone of the European Union is that we must have a strong internal market. It is the possibility that our companies should be able to trade across national borders without facing the constraints that they still do today. Yet we have seen a policy that has focused more on regulating European businesses than on actually creating the framework needed to create an economy in Europe that allows us to be competitive with the rest of the world. Even when Europe is making projects in the world, there is not even a great desire on the part of the Commission to ensure that tenders are made and conditions created in such a way that it is the European companies that actually get the contracts that can help to create growth and jobs in Europe. I think that is disgraceful and I really hope that the new Commission will take the lead in ensuring that we create change and that we create the growth we need in Europe.