Just the Facts | What “One Europe, One Market” means for Ireland

The Single Market is the EU’s most powerful economic asset – yet barriers to cross-border trade, services and innovation remain. Divergent national regulations and slow implementation of legislation can impact both businesses and consumers. The One Europe, One Market Roadmap, signed by the EU institutions in April 2026, sets out a programme of legislative and policy measures to address these gaps by the end of 2027. However, responses to the One Europe, One Market Roadmap have exposed some tensions between the EU’s competitiveness-driven simplification agenda and concerns about deregulation. With more than a third of these measures scheduled for completion by the end of 2026, Ireland, soon to be assuming the Presidency of the Council of the EU, is set to play a key role in delivering the EU’s Single Market and competitiveness agenda. 

The EU Single Market and barriers to deeper integration

The Single Market is one of the EU’s greatest achievements and a cornerstone of the integration process. Established in 1993, the Single Market ensures the free movement of goods, services, capital and people (the ‘four freedoms’) across the EU. The EU Single Market comprises about 450 million consumers and 26 million companies, accounting for around 18% of global GDP. It allows EU citizens to live and work across the EU and offers consumers a wider choice of high-quality services and products.

In practice, however, barriers remain within the European Single Market, as the Letta and Draghi reports (2024) highlight. These include regulatory complexities, a patchwork of national regulations, and slow legislative implementation, all of which can result in innovation being stifled and companies being unable to scale up beyond national borders. The Letta report also points to a lack of integration in the financial, energy, and electronic communications sectors as a primary reason for Europe’s declining competitiveness.

A report by the European Court of Auditors in March 2026 found the Commission’s actions to remove barriers to cross-border services to be insufficient. In the services sector, which accounts for around 70% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment but just a fifth of total trade in the EU, around 60% of the barriers to a Single Market identified in 2002 still persist. These long-standing barriers include differing national regulations, bureaucratic administrative procedures, and restrictions on professional mobility. According to IMF figures, €150 billion is lost annually in capital markets due to divergent national regulations and tax systems; roughly €228 billion is sacrificed in goods, and €279 billion lost in services each year.

How does the One Europe, One Market Roadmap seek to change this?

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the One Europe, One Market Roadmap at an EU leaders’ summit on 12 February 2026. On 24 April 2026, the Presidents of the European Commission and European Parliament and the President of Cyprus, holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU, signed a Joint Declaration committing to achieve the roadmap by the end of 2027. The strategy aims to close Europe’s competitiveness gap with the US and China and achieve a fully integrated Single Market, turning it into a stronger lever of growth, investment and business momentum, and enabling common responses to the green and digital transitions. In these ways, it builds on the Commission’s strategy from May 2025, “The Single Market: our European home market in an uncertain world”, which aims to address barriers to the free movement of goods, services, and people.

The One Europe, One Market Roadmap sets out 42 legislative and political initiatives with indicative timelines, organised into the following five strategic pillars (selected examples of deliverable initiatives below):

The roadmap defines the roles of the EU bodies: the Commission is responsible for proposing the legislative and policy initiatives set out in the annex, while the European Parliament and the Council commit to “working towards a swift agreement on all the legislative proposals set out in the annex”, which are to be treated as political priorities. The Commission and Member States, meanwhile, have pledged to step up implementation and enforcement to ensure that commitments are fully delivered and have measurable impact.

With regard to implementation, the roadmap includes a commitment for the European Commission, Parliament and Council of the EU to meet on a quarterly basis to review progress, identify obstacles, coordinate actions, and review the five action areas to encompass the social dimension of the Single Market.

Response from civil society and business

Responses to the One Europe, One Market Roadmap have exposed some tensions between the EU’s competitiveness-driven simplification agenda and concerns about deregulation.

The environmental network Friends of the Earth criticised the roadmap for potentially “weakening and abolishing laws that protect human rights, health and safety standards and the environment”. Corporate Europe Observatory raised concerns about the speed at which the roadmap was agreed by Member States and warned of attempts at deregulation. The roadmap is the latest of a plethora of simplification measures introduced by the Commission with the aim of making Europe more competitive – however, civil society groups, NGOs, trade unions and other groups have repeatedly warned against undermining democracy and dismantling environmental and social protections. NGOs have underlined that the accelerated procedures that accompanied the Omnibus packages introduced since 2025 have reduced the capacity for Parliamentary oversight in Brussels.

At the same time, some NGOs welcomed the reversal of some of the more concerning proposals from earlier drafts of the roadmap by the Parliament and the Council. For example, a reference to the EU’s ‘enhanced cooperation’ clause was removed, which could have allowed groups of likeminded Member States to bypass the need for a majority consensus in the Council of the EU. A proposed ban on gold-plating – whereby national governments can supplement EU regulations with additional requirements when transposing into national law – was also removed from the final roadmap. A ban on gold-plating would have limited the ability of national governments to introduce more robust environmental and social protection standards. Moreover, the previous draft was framed as a Joint Declaration of the three institutions, which had stronger constitutional resonance than a roadmap.

Business groups such as BusinessEurope, of which the Irish association Ibec is a member, are generally supportive of the simplification agenda and greater market integration and have emphasised that the Irish Presidency will be crucial in “turning ambition into action”. In a declaration, BusinessEurope’s Council of Presidents outlines accelerating the reduction of the regulatory burden and diversifying and securing market access as key measures to improve competitiveness and mitigate geopolitical risks.

Single Market measures in Ireland

According to the European Commission, Ireland plays a vital role in advancing EU competitiveness by leveraging its strengths in foreign direct investment (FDI), innovation, and support for Single Market reforms. Ireland’s response to the challenges of competitiveness includes strengthening research capacity and aligning national priorities with EU-level objectives.

In September 2025, the Government published an Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity, a strategic framework containing 85 actions, including 26 priority measures, aimed at improving Ireland’s long-term productivity and economic resilience.

In May 2026, the Irish Department for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment announced a new Single Market Office, as part of an overhaul of Ireland’s approach to the EU Single Market aimed at tackling persistent barriers holding back Irish businesses and European growth. Next steps under Ireland’s national framework to drive progress under the EU’s Single Market Strategy will include a cross-departmental Taskforce to ensure a cross-government approach, and an Advisory Panel bringing together business representatives and experts.

What does the roadmap mean for Ireland’s EU Presidency?

Competitiveness and the Single Market are poised to be at the centre of Ireland’s agenda for its Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2026.  

More than a third of the measures (16 out of 42) outlined in the One Europe, One Market Roadmap are due to be completed during Ireland’s Presidency, meaning that the Irish government will have a significant responsibility in bringing these over the line. According to the roadmap, the following initiatives are scheduled for completion by the end of 2026: 

Source: Based on One Europe, One Market Roadmap

From roadmap to reality

The One Europe, One Market Roadmap contains legislative and non-legislative initiatives in various stages of the policymaking process, with the potential for considerable impact on firms, workers and consumers. In the spirit of the roadmap itself, which pledges to “respect the European Pillar of social rights, creating a just transition that secures quality jobs and leaves no one behind”, this principle must be put into practice in the implementation process. Civil society, businesses and national parliaments should be treated as equal co-owners throughout. This means ensuring structured and balanced consultation mechanisms in which the concerns of civil society are seriously taken into account, rather than being sidelined in favour of corporate interests, which has been an issue in some recent simplification efforts. For example, a report by Corporate Europe Observatory found that the European Commission’s Implementation Dialogues relating to the simplification agenda were dominated by business representatives (about 71%), compared to civil society organisations and trade union organisations (about 11%). Competitiveness of the EU Single Market does not just mean economic strength and global market position, but crucially also sustainable growth and social cohesion. Keeping these aspects at the centre of competitiveness efforts can also help in navigating the tensions between the simplification agenda and concerns about deregulation.

This challenge will fall most immediately to Ireland when it takes over the EU Council Presidency on 1 July 2026. “Autonomy through competitiveness” was a priority of the outgoing Cyprus Presidency, and Ireland has indicated it intends to maintain that momentum, acknowledging the “ambitious agenda” agreed by EU leaders to enhance Europe’s competitiveness and strengthen the Single Market. The Irish government will be expected to drive progress on many of these files while also setting the tone for the new Trio Presidency cycle together with Lithuania and Greece.

Looming in the background is the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), which will determine how work and particularly structural projects under the One Europe, One Market Roadmap will be continued from 2028. The Letta report states that the MFF could “catalyse a significant transformation of the Single Market into a truly ‘European Market’”. The Irish government has already signalled that EU budget negotiations will be a strong focus of its Presidency. With competitiveness at the heart of virtually every major initiative on the Council’s agenda, Ireland’s delivery on the One Europe, One Market Roadmap may prove to be the defining measure of its Presidency.