Keir Starmer's bid to reset relations with the European Union has hit a major stumbling block as the EU Commission has lambasted its most prized asset.
The EU's ten-point takedown of the Single Market - analysed by Facts4EU and shared exclusively with GB News - follows the Prime Minister's summit with his European counterparts last Monday.
The meeting paved the way for a new deal with the bloc that constitutes a more comprehensive revamp of the relationship than was expected.
It sees the UK negotiating selective participation in parts of the single market for agri-food and electricity in return for accepting “dynamic alignment” and a role for the European Court of Justice.
As part of the compromise, the UK has cemented the EU's access to UK waters for the next 12 years - a concession that has riled up fishing communities around the country and raised the spectre of a red sea wall wipeout at the ballot box.
Starmer also changed his tune on a youth mobility scheme, allowing 18 to 30-year-olds to work and travel between the UK and EU, which critics warn is tantamount to a return to freedom of movement (a charge the Government vehemently denies).
Although Labour maintains its red lines on not rejoining the single market as a whole or the customs union, its conciliatory approach to the bloc makes this the likely direction of travel.
Commission has identified a set of ‘Terrible Ten' Single Market barriers
EU Commission report
Bad timing
Days after Starmer's 'Brexit reset', Facts4EU has shone a light on a damning new report by the EU Commission that enumerates the so-called 'Terrible Ten' flaws that hinder the Single Market, which Brussels in February effusively described as its "crown jewel, allowing 440 million people to study, live, shop, work, and retire freely across the EU. It drives growth, fosters employment, and simplifies daily life for individuals and businesses alike – with 16 per cent of global exports, the EU stands as a major trading power".
The Commission's latest report appears to contradict that glowing description, identifying a set of ‘Terrible Ten' Single Market barriers based on comprehensive consultations with stakeholders:
- Complicated business establishment and operations
- Overly complex EU rules
- Lack of Single Market ownership by Member States
- [Lack of] Recognition of professional qualifications
- Long delays in standard-setting that weigh on innovation and competitiveness
- Fragmented rules on packaging, labelling and waste
- Outdated harmonised product rules and lack of product compliance
- Restrictive and diverging national services regulation
- Burdensome procedures for the temporary posting of workers
- Territorial supply constraints
For example, in 2017, then-EU Commissioner for the Single Market Elżbieta Bieńkowska said: "The Single Market – this jewel that is all too often taken for granted – does not function properly for services.”
Returning to the present report, the list of the ‘Terrible Ten’ issued by the Commission was followed by the statement that: “The Commission will address the above barriers as a matter of priority.”
However, previous investigations by Facts4EU have found that such pronouncements have led nowhere, and the UK has suffered the most from this stasis.
Below is an example from the Commission's Annual Single Market and Competitiveness report for the UK's last year of membership of the EU (2020). It was typical of the ones before it.
“The UK has the lowest trade integration in the Single Market for goods and the third lowest trade integration for services.”
The chart complied by Facts4EU below shows shows the percentage of a country’s GDP represented by trade in goods with other EU countries (average of imports and exports). The chart puts the UK right at the bottom of the pile.
The EU's Single Market delivered nothing for the UK's trade in goods, chart shows
Facts4EU
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