EU budget: New Single Market programme to empower and protect Europeans

The new programme will strengthen the governance of the EU's internal market. It will support businesses' – and in particular SMEs' – competitiveness and will promote human, animal and plant health and animal welfare, as well as establish the framework for financing European statistics.

The new Single Market Programme will support:

• Consumer protection and empowerment: The new programme will guarantee the enforcement of consumer rights, ensure a high level of consumer protection and product safety and assist consumers when they encounter problems, for example when shopping online. It will also facilitate consumers' access to redress, as proposed in the New Deal for Consumers.
• Competitiveness of businesses, in particular SMEs: Building on the success of the current programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME), the Commission is proposing to strengthen the support given to small business to scale up and expand across borders;
• A high level of human, animal and plant health: EU citizens will continue to have access to safe and high quality food in the integrated European Single Market. Under the new programme, funding will support the safe production of food, the prevention and eradication of animal diseases and plant pests, and the improvement of animal welfare in the EU. It will also promote market access for EU food producers, contribute to exports to third-countries, and significantly support the agri-food industry as a leading sector of the EU economy;
• Effective enforcement and first class standards: The programme will strengthen cooperation between Member States and the Commission to ensure that EU rules are properly implemented and enforced. The programme will also support European standardisation organisations in developing up-to-date and future-proof standards.
• Fair competition in the digital age: The programme will help the Commission to further enhance its IT tools and expertise that it uses to effectively enforce competition rules in the digital economy (i.e. to respond to market developments such as the use of big data and algorithms) as well as to strengthen cooperation between the Commission and Member State authorities and courts.
• High quality European statistics: The programme will provide funding to national statistics institutes for the production and dissemination of European statistics which are indispensable for decision-making in all policy areas.

Next steps

A swift agreement on the overall long-term EU budget and its sectoral proposals is essential to ensure that EU funds start delivering results as soon as possible. Delays similar to the ones experienced at the beginning of the current 2014-2020 budgetary period would reduce the financial assistance and technical support provided to SMEs, disturb actions to guarantee food or product safety and disrupt the development of new standards.

An agreement on the next long-term budget in 2019 would provide for a seamless transition between the current long-term budget (2014-2020) and the new one and would ensure predictability and continuity of activities to the benefit of all.