The European Union's single market chief has conceded the bloc's rules have a "dark side" as Brussels races to centralise the continent's industrial strategy.
Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta outlined proposals for key reforms he will present to EU leaders after being assigned to conduct a report on the state of the single market last year.
Letta, who returned to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 2021, suggested the bloc could tear up rules on state subsidies and introduce measures to prevent a brain drain from poorer member states.
The President of the Jacques Delors Institute will present his findings to EU leaders in the spring after a tour of European capitals.
Ursula Von Der Leyen and Enrico Letta
GETTY
Delors, who served as President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995 and was the chief architect behind the single market, died last week.
The single market looked to unify the 27 individual member states to ensure free movement of goods, services, capital and people within the EU.
However, Letta is hoping to centralise Europe's industrial strategy to compel those from poorer member states to stay at home.
It would lead to Brussels encompassing a greater role over national policy issues.
The expected announcement comes amid growing fury about the bloc's immigration rules.
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Flags of the European Union fly outside the Berlaymont building of the European Commission
GETTYHe told Politico: "We had the single market as freedom to move. That was the centre of everything.
“I’d like to build up a single market that is not only the freedom to move, but it’s also the freedom to stay.
However, following a number of complaints about the Big Four benefitting from the bloc's rules, Letta appeared to argue for a pan-European industrial strategy.
The former Italian Prime Minister said: "State aid is an exception. And they must remain so. We need a European industrial policy. Not a national fragmentation."
Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico LETTA talking to mediaGETTYHe added: “[It is] a really huge demonstration that state aid policy is at the very core of debate at the European level, and has to be at the very core of debate at the European level."
However, Letta stopped short of revealing any of the specifics behind his report.
The death of Delors prompted a number of responses from leading Brexiteers condemning the single market.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "His ideas were never right for Britain - as he himself later seemed to concede - and there are many on the continent who have doubts about the direction of the EU. But no one can doubt his legacy today."
Ex-Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage added: "Jacques Delors was a highly intelligent man determined to end the nation state as we know it. I often thought it was a shame that we never got the chance to do battle on the floor of the European Parliament."
