The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has launched the Single Market Act. This is designed to reinvigorate the single market, which will be 20 years old next year.
The Commission has announced a range of measures designed to remove obstacles from the market, which it says are hampering jobs and growth.
The Single European Market for goods and services was created in 1992. The Commission says it has been a clear success, with 21 million European companies employing 175 million people, all supplying goods and services for 500 million consumers.
But the Commission says it should be deepened and improved because globalisation and technology have altered the landscape, and because the financial crisis of 2008 requires the single market to deliver more by way of jobs and growth.
10% of Europeans are currently unemployed - this represents 23 million people.
Today President Barroso launched the Single European Act, which comprises 12 key measures to reinvigorate the single market and guide it towards its potential.
These include making cross border e-commerce easier for both companies and consumers, opening up protected professions, better recognition of educational qualifications, and strengthening the directive which allows workers from one member state to work in another.
The latter will be a sensitive area, dealing with questions over 'wage dumping' and the right of workers to take collective action. Mr Barroso said social rights would be protected on a case by case basis.
No bridging loan for Portugal - Barroso
Portugal will not be granted a bridging loan by the European Union, EU Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said today as negotiations on tackling the nation's debt crisis unfold in Lisbon.
'In conformity with existing rules, it is not possible to provide bridging loans,' the former Portuguese prime minister told a press conference in Brussels, underlining that Lisbon signed up to the presently agreed scope of European rescue funding.
The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are currently examining detailed emergency financing plans to help Portugal fight off a debt crisis that has already seen Greece and Ireland require nearly €200 billion in bail-outs last year.
But Barroso said the offer of financial aid, expected to be finalised by mid-May and only paid out after a new Portuguese government is elected after a June 5 general election, 'will be a medium-term programme with strict conditions'.
