24 February Internal Market informal

Date: 29/02/1996

EU internal market ministers discussed ways of making the single market more user-friendly and popular with Europe's 370 million citizens. The European Commission is to launch an information offensive this year to highlight the benefits of the market to the man and woman on the street. These benefits have, to a large extent, been overshadowed by the failure of member states' to remove border checks as promised. “We want to show people that Europe is useful to them,” Single Market Commissioner Mario Monti told reporters after the meeting. The 'Citizen First' campaign will include television commercials and information packs to explain, among other things, people's right to work and study in other EU countries.

IN line with European Commission President Jacques Santer's credo of “doing less, but better”, internal market ministers said they would concentrate on simplifying existing legislation rather than passing new single market laws. “This is especially important for small and medium-sized companies. They are the ones most hurt by red tape,” explained Italian Budget Minister Mario Arcelli, adding that such a move would boost growth and employment in the EU. Monti pointed out that the number of laws being proposed by the Commission had fallen sharply over the past five years, from 61 pieces of legislation in 1990 to just 25 in 1995.

THE removal of border controls between member states was also discussed at the meeting, but a clear way forward was not found. Internal security, ministers agreed, was the main obstacle to a border-free Europe, with concern over security especially poignant in France and the UK following bomb attacks in both countries' capital cities. One of the ideas floated at the meeting foresees the removal of fixed border crossings between countries and the creation of a 20-kilometre buffer zone where police could make random checks on visitors.