European Commission - Statement Statement by President von der Leyen with President Costa following the informal EU leaders' retreat Brussels, 12 February 2026 One Europe, One Market. This was indeed the headline of the discussion, and this is our ambition. One Europe, One Market. We want to be there at the end of 2027. We had an excellent discussion with the leaders today on the broader topic of competitiveness we h...
European Commission - Statement Statement by President von der Leyen with President Costa following the informal EU leaders' retreat Brussels, 12 February 2026 One Europe, One Market. This was indeed the headline of the discussion, and this is our ambition. One Europe, One Market. We want to be there at the end of 2027. We had an excellent discussion with the leaders today on the broader topic of competitiveness we have agreed that next European Council, in March, I will present a One Europe, One Market Roadmap and Action Plan that shows very detailed what are we going to do with timelines, with targets, and with a clear limit of time also to deliver. And the ambition is that we will have this document committed and agreed by not only the Commission, but also the two co-legislators, that is the European Council and the Parliament. We have more or less five building blocks for this One Market Pact. The first is to reduce administrative burden. So, this has different layers, and it has of course the European level but also the national level. First of all, it was important to acknowledge 10 omnibuses are on their way. Three have arrived at their destination, but seven are still on their way. So, we need now the co-legislators really to speed up to bring them over the finish line, because this means EUR 15 billion of cutting red tape for our companies, for our economy, every year. Second, we will, after having done the Omnibuses, and more will come, do a deep house cleaning on the acquis, present on this one a plan with first proposals. I said we will look at all levels. We have to crack down on gold-plating. Gold-plating are these extra layers of legislation, European legislation, but done individually by Member States so that as an effect you have European legislation, but 27 different realities in the Member States. We want to crack down on this gold-plating. This means less directives and more regulations, because a regulation sets one clear goal for all 27 Member States. And my ask is and was to the co-legislators to propose and accept only strictly technical delegated acts or implementing acts. We have too many delegated acts and implementing acts, and these should only be technical definitions. We will introduce “sunset clauses” for laws so that we also have a certain time after which there is a “sunset clause” on a law, and the legislators can decide on whether to continue or change completely the law. And finally, once a year there will be a Report to the European Council on the Simplification progress and on the Cost Reduction. That is a simplification. The second building block is building one market. Indeed, when companies want to scale up in our market, they face difficulties because of the fragmentation that our market of 27 has. And therefore, we will propose the 28th regime, EU Inc we call it, before the March European Council. This is the principle that wherever you are in the European Union you can digitally, within 48 hours, have an EU Inc. You can operate it completely digitally, and it is one single and simple rule across the whole European Union, therefore the 28th regime. We also agreed that to build one market you don't only need the 28th regime but also the Savings and Investment Union, one deep and liquid capital market. And here we agreed that we want to be done with phase one of the Savings and Investment Union, that includes the market integration, the supervision and the securitization, by June. If there is not sufficient progress by then, we will consider introducing enhanced cooperation. That is that at least nine Member States, if they want, move forward faster and decide to be more ambitious. The enhanced cooperation theoretically is also very interesting for the 28th regime because you can make it more ambitious. And if not all 27 immediately want to move on the 28th regime, we could go into the enhanced cooperation. Don't get me wrong, I prefer it by 27, but these two enormously important building blocks, they really have to advance now and therefore there is as a fallback option potentially the enhanced cooperation. We need European champions. That is why we are revising the merger guidelines. A draft will be presented in April, followed by consultations with the Member States. Our objective is clear: merger guidelines that reflect the realities of the global market, not just the European one, and that enable the emergence of true European champions. And finally, we will present the Industrial Accelerator Act, including a European preference before the next European Council for strategic sectors based on solid economic analysis. The third pillar is building one energy market. Here, on one hand, we have to strengthen the infrastructure, mainly also the grid and the cross-border energy. The Grids Package is on the table of the Council and Parliament. There, too, in our Roadmap for One market, we will have a timeline set for the Grids Package to be done and to be agreed. We will implement European energy highways. The first energy highway has just been agreed. That is the Bornholm Island with the Baltic offshore wind now connected to Denmark and to Germany. A huge improvement of offshore wind that was initially only national but now can be used as European resource of energy. So, infrastructure is one part. The other part is the market design. Here we had an intense discussion about the effect that, on average, if you look at renewables last year, they cost EUR 34 per megawatt hour. Nuclear costs EUR 50 to 60 EUR per megawatt hour, and gas costs 100 EUR per megawatt hour. And the discussion is intense why our merit order system in the very end takes the most expensive resource, and this is the price-setting mechanism then. We did not come to a conclusion. I want to be very clear on this one. But to the next European Council, I will bring different options and findings on whether it is time to move forward on the market design or whether we are still good on this market design. And we will come as planned and as it is in the law with an ETS review. The fourth pillar is digital. We agreed again here the on Digital Networks Act. You mentioned the telecom merger possibility that is in this DNA, the Digital Networks Act. It is on the table. We will have timelines in the roadmap so that it moves forward rapidly. The same goes for the European business wallet that will make it possible that you have a unique digital identity and a single channel of correspondence as a company with governments and with all 27 governments in the European Union, an enormous step forward on digital simplification. Here, too, there will be, as of March, a timeline to proceed. And finally, looking forward, there will be the proposal for tech sovereignty package. This includes a Chips Act 2.0, a Cloud and AI Development Act. Last point on the digital, we also looked at the infrastructure that we need for high computing power. You know we have the AI factories. We will upgrade them to ecosystems of AI gigafactories. And here, too, we discussed the enormous response that we got Europe-wide for our proposals, and this we will launch in June. Last but not least, an important pillar – this is not within the one market, but it is trade, which is, of course of upmost importance for our market. Here, the leaders were very supportive on swift implementation of the newly agreed trade agreements. It is Indonesia, it is Mercosur, India, and Switzerland. And of course, very encouraging to continue the work with future agreements, be it ASEAN, Gulf states, or Australia, for example. Thank you. STATEMENT/26/405 Press contacts: Paula PINHO (+32 2 29 20815) Arianna PODESTA (+32 2 298 70 24) Olof GILL (+32 2 29 65966) General public inquiries: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 67 89 10 11 or by email
Speech Brief