Building One Europe, One Market

Summary

Europe’s digital single market can no longer be treated as a purely internal regulatory project. Fragmentation weakens Europe’s economy, narrows its influence over the global development of digital technologies and erodes the resilience of Europe’s critical digital infrastructure. This study examines structural challenges holding back the development of Europe’s digital single market.

It addresses 10 key bottlenecks that consistently constrain companies’ ability to operate and scale across borders with the EU. These bottlenecks cluster around broader structural dysfunctions: fragmented and unevenly implemented regulation, digital infrastructure that remains confined within national silos, skills and labour mobility that lag behind the digital transformation, and a financing and innovation ecosystem that does not adequately support the scaling of European digital companies to compete globally.

Based on this analysis, the study proposes four strategic priorities to unlock the full potential of the digital single market, along with recommendations grouped under each.

1) Generating demand to help European digital firms scale (Use digital);

2) Strengthening Europe’s position in critical digital value chains (Control digital);

3) Aligning governance and financing, including stronger links between the digital single market and the Savings and Investments Union (Policy leadership); and

4) Making it easier to comply with legislation so that regulation supports integration rather than fragmentation (Simplify digital).

Progress on one strategic priority alone is not enough: Europe needs coordinated action across all four. Together, these actions aim to move Europe from a fragmented regulatory environment towards a truly integrated and globally competitive digital single market.

The study situates these recommendations within the broader One Europe, One Market Roadmap adopted in April 2026, which marked an important shift towards a more coordinated and operational approach to deepening the EU single market.