Integration of Products and Services: Taking the Single Market into the 21st Century

The European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC) reports directly to the President of the European Commission and operates under his authority. It is composed of a professional staff of advisers, policy analysts and support staff with appropriate experience and track record, in order to provide professional and targeted policy advice to the President and the College.

EPSC provides strategic analysis and policy advice for the President on matters related to the policy priorities (as defined by the President in his political guidelines presented to the European Parliament on 15 July 2014), and outreach to decision-makers, think tanks and civil society at large.

The EPSC provides support to the President also on concrete initiatives, as well as policy advice of more long-term nature.

EPSC Strategic Notes are analytical papers on topics chosen by the President of the European Commission. They are produced by the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), the European Commission’s in-house think tank.Future historians may well look at our time as equally determinant in redesigning the economic rules of the game as the 19th century industrial revolution. The consumer and user is ever more central to the new economy, by virtue of being more active and responsive, hence shaping the manufacturing value chain and leading the way towards tailor-made, personalised ‘production on demand’ and the emergence of hyperconnected services. If the industrial age was marked by standardisation, the digital era is about customisation. These tectonic shifts go hand in hand with other developments of seismic proportions: the blurring distinction between products and services; the birth of the ‘prosumer’ who combines elements of consumption and production; and the growing importance of investments in intangibles – such as software or design - which increasingly outstrip investments in tangibles - such as machines or buildings - in the leading economies.

ESO: Information Guide: Single Market http://www.europeansources.info/record/information-guide-single-market/

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