Commission annual report on Single Market and competitiveness calls for joint action in light of unprecedented challenges

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

Today, the European Commission adopted the 2026 Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report, the sixth in an annual series, evaluating the functioning of the Single Market and assessing the conditions for businesses to innovate, grow, and compete while delivering sustainable prosperity for European citizens.

The report draws on 29 key performance indicators, covering areas such as market integration and barriers, electricity prices and investment trends, and identifies priority areas for action.

The report shows that six indicators have decreased, six have improved, and 15 remain broadly unchanged. Two indicators are new.

The indicators that have shown improvement between the last report and this one are the recognition of skills and qualifications needed for EU citizens to exercise their profession in other Member States; EU market surveillance, measured by product investigations carried out by market surveillance authorities; the share of companies in the EU using artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data analytics; the volume of InvestEU investments supporting the industrial transition has increased; the share of renewable energy generation with respect to total energy consumption; the annually-added capacity to generate renewable electricity.

The indicators that have worsened are the share of EU GDP represented by trade between EU Member States; the share of transposed EU Single Market Directives for which infringement proceedings were launched; the average time needed to draft standards; labour shortages in occupations requiring specific skills for the green transition; the school performance of 15-year-olds measured by PISA scores; private investment, as a share of GDP.

Some of the indicators that have stayed stable include labour productivity (measured in GDP per hour worked); ease of regulatory compliance (measured by business’ surveys); private and public expenditure in research and development as a share of GDP; number of patent applications; venture capital investment as share of GDP; domestic clean tech manufacturing capacity.

Also, as of this year, the Commission introduced a new indicator to track simplification efforts. This indicator shows that the projected administrative savings from the Commission’s adopted omnibus and other simplification proposals amount to around €15 billion. There is an additional new indicator tracking the share of single market administrative procedures that are fully digital.

The report further outlines the areas where in 2026 the Commission will target its efforts to remove barriers in the Single Market. These efforts will focus on tackling late payments and obstacles to key services related to the green transition. The Commission will address these and other barriers through dialogue with Member States and, where necessary, infringement proceedings. So that the benefits to citizens and businesses behind these enforcement actions are clearer, the Commission will publish clear explanations regarding the objectives pursued and the results achieved.

Finally, the report is complemented by the 2026 edition of the Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard, which is available online. The documents accompanying the report include an overview of the implementation of the Competitiveness Compass, the Clean Industrial Deal, and the Single Market Strategy; and the Annual Report of the Single Market Enforcement Task Force.

For more information

2026 Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report 

Staff Working Document with annexes that accompanying the 2026 Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report (KPIs; Implementation tables; Overview of resilience measures by selected global players)

2026 interactive online Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard: The Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard | Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard

2024-2025 Annual Report of the Single Market Enforcement Task Force