Enrico Letta’s Report: More Than a Market, but Less Than an Agenda

Summary:

On April 18 2024,  former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta published his long-awaited report on the future of the EU’s single market, entitled ‘Much more than a market’. Letta describes the EU single market as unsuited for a world where the EU’s share of the world economy is shrinking and where it faces competitors less willing to play by global norms. His report correctly identifies many of the EU’s most urgent problems. It has proposals on everything from the need for high-speed rail, investments in outer space, and a more unified health sector, to more quotidian efforts to improve EU law-making processes. But many of Letta’s recommendations echo ideas which have been raised repeatedly in recent years, offering something for everyone while glossing over trade-offs. If Letta’s report is to provoke reform, member-states will have to prioritise his ideas and confront the necessary compromises head-on. Otherwise, the report will do little to move the European debate forward. This insight will look at some key aspects of Letta’s report: the capital markets union, innovation, competition as well as state aid and trade.

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Letta, Enrico: Much More Than a Market https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/ny3j24sm/much-more-than-a-market-report-by-enrico-letta.pdf

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