On the guidelines for the financial year 2027 budget – all sections

The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

1.Recalls that the Union budget for 2027 will be the final budget under the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and, as a bridging budget for the upcoming 2028-2034 MFF, it needs to continue delivering both on the current and the future priorities and challenges including concerning the EU single market; therefore calls for the Union budget for 2027 to contribute to enhancing competitiveness, sustainability, and strengthening the functioning of the single market, supporting the transition to a digital, sustainable and competitive economy, while promoting and protecting the interests of European consumers by ensuring a high level of protection, especially in the light of new challenges posed by the digital environment; calls for the removal of barriers to hindering its functioning, especially the “Terrible 10” identified by the European Commission; highlights the need to reduce unjustified administrative burdens for companies, especially SME’s, small mid-caps, start-ups and scale-ups, and ensure harmonised implementation, of existing legislation; stresses that an attractive single market for SMEs, small mid-caps, start-ups and scale-ups provides an ideal ecosystem for attracting and retaining talent, creating quality jobs and fostering the development of the skills required by the labour market; highlights the need to strengthen and increase the resilience of the single market, as well as its accessibility for business, aiming at increasing EU trade flows, securing supply chains and value chains, thus contributing to economic growth; stresses that the single market is an essential element for achieving a globally competitive, circular, resource- and energy-efficient economy; welcomes, in this regard, the work done so far on the circular economy, focusing on removing market barriers, ensuring consumers rights and promoting sustainable business models;

2.Calls for the Union budget for 2027 to support research and innovation clusters in the industrial sector and to strengthen measures aimed at facilitating the development of start-ups and SMEs;

3.Highlights that the multiple challenges facing Europe require increased investment and coordination at European level; calls for a Union budget for 2027 that reflects the urgent nature of these challenges and ensures the future of Europe’s strategic autonomy and supports the goal of the digital transition; underlines the importance of strengthening a robust and competitive European industrial base, particularly in strategic sectors, as a prerequisite for enhancing the Union’s resilience, economic security and sovereignty, and reducing dependencies on problematic third-country supply chains and external geopolitical influence; further underlines that this is even more urgent in the context of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the complicated situation in the Middle East with its potential to cause disruptions in the global economy and trade flows, and hybrid attacks on Member States and foreign interference, among others, highlight the need for the single market to become more sustainable, resilient and prepared to respond to emergencies, including through securing supply chains and reliable access to critical raw materials; calls on the European Commission to ensure sufficient budgetary allocations to mitigate the effects of these challenges, including in particular the impacts of the war in Ukraine on the EU, its citizens and on Member States, particularly those that share a border with Ukraine;

4.Underlines the unprecedented security challenges faced by the Union following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and highlights the increased security risks in the current geopolitical situation, especially for Member States neighbouring conflict areas; calls on the Commission to ensure that the Union budget prioritises investment towards development of the European economy, particularly in the area of security and defence, fostering innovation, boosting the productivity of the European Defence Technology Industrial Base, supporting European microenterprises and SMEs and enhancing investments in these fields; underlines the need to build a genuine European defence market in order to strengthen European sovereignty, defence readiness, strategic autonomy and resilient supply chains; supports fair opportunities for companies of all sizes, including SMEs; calls on the Commission to present, by the end of 2026, a comprehensive revision of the Defence Procurement Directive and the Directive on defence-related transfers;

5.Recalls the need to strengthen the resilience, strategic autonomy and competitiveness of the EU economy through ambitious EU economic policies that can significantly contribute to achieving the EU’s digital and economic growth objectives, maintaining a level playing field and legal certainty in the single market and significantly reducing regulatory and administrative requirements to unlock the full potential of cross-border trade, takes note of the publication of the Industrial Accelerator Act and underlines its potential to strengthen the competitiveness of strategic sectors and technologies, while contributing to the Union’s resilience, strategic autonomy, energy sovereignty and energy affordability; underlines the need to strengthen the Single Market Enforcement Taskforce by providing additional resources and a clear mandate to tackle the “Terrible Ten” barriers, systematise pre-infringement dialogues and swiftly address breaches in critical sectors; calls for a genuine Competitiveness Fund setting the macroeconomic conditions for enhancing investment in key sectors in need; stresses that the new Competitiveness Fund should further contribute to strengthening the Single Market and its resilience while supporting the resilience of start-ups and SMEs, and supporting greater coherence, effectiveness and accessibility of Union funding instruments;

6.Recalls the conclusions of the Draghi report, highlighting that 30% of European ‘unicorn’ companies seek funding and growth outside of Europe; calls on the Commission to ensure that the 2027 Union budget prioritises investment in innovation, promoting measures that render the single market more accessible for EU citizens, entrepreneurs, companies, in particular SMEs and innovation start-ups; stresses the importance of ensuring an adequate level of funding to support the European Commission’s efforts to promote innovation and strengthen the development and leadership of artificial intelligence in a dynamic market, thereby enhancing competitiveness and European technological sovereignty; highlights that any simplification of budgetary rules and procedures is essential for encouraging business, especially SMEs, to make full use of the benefits associated to the single market needs to go hand in hand with ensuring proper management of EU funds as well as full protection of the EU budget and EU financial interests;

7.Highlights the need for the 2027 budget to support businesses, workers and consumers in adapting to the environmental and climate rules, notably by helping ease administrative and compliance costs, and ensuring that the transition remains affordable, while contributing to the global competitiveness of European industries and fostering sustainable growth across the Union;

8.Stresses the urgent need to allocate increased budgetary resources to strengthen the Customs Union, as well as the safety legislation enforcement, to boost the resilience and effectiveness of customs and market surveillance authorities; underlines that these resources are essential to carry out more systematic checks on products and to respond effectively to the increasing inflow of non-compliant, unsafe, and illegal products imported via e-commerce platforms, notably from non-EU countries, particularly regarding individual parcels imported directly by consumers through e-commerce platforms; emphasizes the need for better cooperation among customs authorities, greater uptake of IT tools, and funding for common European capabilities, such as product-testing facilities and thorough customs checks of imported parcels, in order to assess compliance with Union standards, protect consumers and ensure a level playing field for European businesses, as well as through coordinated actions by national authorities such as sweeps; calls for further investment in digital tools to improve the efficiency and coordination of customs authorities across the Union; underlines that a properly funded, robust and efficient customs and market surveillance system is essential for safeguarding the EU’s economic resilience and competitiveness, facilitating legitimate cross-border trade, preventing market distortions, and combating illicit activities and eliminating unfair competition; welcomes that the proposed 2027 budget allocates the funding for the newly created European Union Customs Authority and calls on the Commission to prioritise the fast establishment of the agency in its headquarters; stresses the need to allocate adequate resources for equipping all customs border posts with appropriate control equipment;

9.Calls on the Commission to ensure that the 2027 Union budget provides adequate resources for the effective enforcement of single market rules and consumer protection, including consumer product safety regulations; recalls the increasing challenges posed by cross-border online commerce and underlines the need to strengthen cooperation between Union and national enforcement authorities; stresses that effective and consistent enforcement of digital, single market and consumer rules is essential for ensuring fair competition, protecting European consumers, promoting trust between businesses and consumers, and preventing market distortions; further highlights the importance of strengthening the enforcement of consumer rights at EU and national level, coordinating EU and national enforcement actions for increased efficiency as well as and improving consumers’ awareness of their rights; calls on the Commission, in this sense, to ensure increased funding to support high level of protection of the European consumers, including the most vulnerable consumers, both online and offline;

10.Reiterates its call for sufficient funding and staffing to ensure the effective, appropriate and timely enforcement of the Union’s digital rulebook and relevant consumer protection rules; stresses that enforcement capacity must address the current imbalance of resources between competent authorities and large digital actors, and respond to rapidly evolving technological and market risks; underlines that proper and harmonised enforcement is essential to guarantee proper and timely investigations to ensure legal certainty, fair and contestable digital markets, consumer protection, and the Union’s technological autonomy;

11.Calls for a properly resourced European AI Office to ensure the effective implementation and enforcement of EU law and to support compliance across the Union; warns that its capacity must keep pace with increasingly capable AI models and the additional Union-level supervisory tasks conferred by EU law; stresses that the level of funding budgeted in 2027 should allow a substantial increase in the Office’s operational and technical capacity, while supporting research and development of AI-based solutions and innovative approaches that enhance the EU’s technological sovereignty and strategic autonomy;

12.Recalls that according to the 2026 Single Market report only 20.6 % of the EU single market relevant administrative procedures are fully online for cross-border users, which undermines the ability of citizens, entrepreneurs and businesses to fully benefit from the single market; calls on the Commission in this sense to prioritise the digitalisation of single market procedures in the 2027 budget, including by intensifying support for the digital transformation of the public sector, with particular attention to administrative procedures impacting businesses and consumers, enabling seamless access to digital public services and improve awareness among citizens;

13.Underlines that simplification and competitiveness should support legal certainty while preserving the effectiveness of Union law and its implementation; further stresses the importance of combating foreign interference, ensuring consumer protection, addressing the risks posed by dark patterns, addictive design and biased algorithms, particularly for minors and young people, and safeguarding the transparency, accountability and integrity of the digital public sphere;

14.Underlines the need for the Single Market Programme to adequately finance the strengthening of public procurement capacities, particularly by supporting contracting authorities in carrying out public procurement, designing more accessible tenders, reducing administrative burden and the promotion of the interests of consumers, and ensuring a high level of consumer protection and product safety; highlights that better-skilled and better-resourced procurement authorities are essential to ensuring that public procurement serves the public interest through the diligent use of taxpayers’ money, facilitating access for SMEs, simplifying and aligning procedures with best practices, and delivering more effective, impactful, and long-term investment.

Pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure, the rapporteur for opinion declares that he included in his opinion input on matters pertaining to the subject of the file that he received, in the preparation of the opinion, prior to the adoption thereof in committee, from the following interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from the following representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies:

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