One Europe. One market. Time to complete the EU single market

Timing is key. Europe must prove that Europe can act, not just react.

Enrico Letta is a former prime minister of Italy and now president of the Institut Jacques Delors. He is also Dean of the IE School of Politics, Economics, and Global Affairs at IE University.

In a world reshaped by Trump and by the accelerating logic of geopolitical competition, Europe needs an answer that is both realistic and ambitious. The strongest response the EU can offer is to complete the single market.

For decades, it has been Europe’s strongest asset, the backbone of our prosperity, and increasingly the cornerstone of our sovereignty. And yet, in the areas that matter most, we still do not have one market. We have the sum of 27 national markets.

This fragmentation is not a technical flaw. It is a political and strategic weakness. We pay for it in higher costs, weaker investment, slower innovation, and reduced capacity to act in the world. Europe’s problem is not diagnosis. The problem is speed, ownership and political commitment.

This is why we need a bold political commitment to strengthen and complete the single market. We need an agreement that creates a fast track for the steps required to complete it, endorsed by the presidents of the EU institutions. It should have a name that matches its ambition: the One Market Act.

In 1992, Europe moved from a common market to a single market. Now we need the next step: one market. This is not about treaty change. The actions we need are already possible under the existing framework. We can act immediately. The tools are there; what Europe needs is execution.

The One Market Act should focus on a limited package of true game-changers. Not dozens of files. A small number of priorities, chosen because they reinforce each other and strike at the heart of fragmentation.

“The tools are there; what Europe needs is execution,” writes Enrico Letta, former prime minister of Italy. | Lars Baron/Getty Images

Three priorities are sectoral.

The first is financial services. Europe’s public budgets are constrained, but Europe holds vast private savings. A true savings and investments union is how we can channel capital into European companies, strengthen our industrial base, and support the international role of the euro.

The second is energy. Without stronger interconnections, Europe will remain exposed to bottlenecks, volatility and avoidable costs. Completing the energy union is not only a climate priority. It is a competitiveness and security priority.

The third is connectivity. Europe cannot claim technological sovereignty while its telecom sector remains weak and fragmented. This requires swift delivery on the Digital Networks Act, and the political courage to enable investment and consolidation at continental scale.

But a modern single market also depends on horizontal enablers.

The Fifth Freedom is essential: the free flow of knowledge, data, research and skills. Without it, Europe will keep paying the strategic cost of non-innovation.

The same logic applies to the 28th regime. Europe does not lack ideas and talent. It lacks a framework that allows companies to scale across borders with simplicity. A truly European company regime would keep investment and ambition in Europe.

Finally, the single market will only remain politically sustainable if it protects the freedom to stay. Mobility must remain a choice, not an obligation. A stronger market must go hand in hand with cohesion, essential services, SMEs and a robust social dimension.

This cannot become another long-term strategy. Europe needs a final deadline, 2028, and intermediate milestones in 2026 and 2027.

Timing is key. Europe must prove that Europe can act, not just react. We need the One Market Act.