The European Commission has today adopted the 2026 Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report, which is the sixth annual report assessing the functioning of the single market and the conditions under which businesses can innovate, grow, and compete, while ensuring sustainable prosperity for European citizens.
The report is based on 29 key performance indicators covering areas such as market integration and barriers, electricity prices, and investment trends, and it identifies priority areas for action.
The report shows that six indicators have worsened, six have improved, and 15 remain broadly unchanged. Two indicators are new.
The indicators that have improved between the last report and this one include: the recognition of skills and qualifications needed by EU citizens to practice their profession in other Member States; EU market surveillance as measured by product investigations conducted by market surveillance authorities; the share of EU companies using artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and data analytics; the increase in the volume of investments through the InvestEU program that support industrial transition; the share of energy production from renewable sources relative to total energy consumption; and the annual added capacity for electricity production from renewable sources.
The indicators that have worsened are: the share of EU GDP represented by intra-EU trade; the share of transposed EU single market directives that have triggered infringement proceedings; the average time required to prepare standards; labor shortages in occupations requiring specific skills for the green transition; the academic performance of 15-year-olds as measured by PISA results; and private investment as a share of GDP.
Some indicators that remained unchanged include labor productivity (measured in GDP per hour worked); ease of regulatory compliance (measured by business surveys); private and public expenditure on research and development as a share of GDP; the number of patent applications; venture capital investments as a share of GDP; and capacity for domestic production of clean technologies.
Furthermore, the Commission has introduced a new indicator this year to monitor simplification efforts. This indicator shows that the projected administrative savings resulting from omnibus proposals and other simplification proposals adopted by the Commission amount to approximately 15 billion euros. There is an additional new indicator that monitors the share of fully digital administrative procedures in the Single Market.
The report further describes the areas where the Commission will focus its efforts in 2026 to remove obstacles in the Single Market. These efforts will be focused on addressing payment delays and barriers to key services related to the green transition. The Commission will address these and other obstacles through dialogue with Member States and, where necessary, through infringement procedures. To make the benefits of these enforcement actions for citizens and businesses more understandable, the Commission will publish clear explanations regarding the set objectives and achieved results.
The report is also complemented by the 2026 Single Market and Competitiveness Scoreboard, which is available online. Documents accompanying the report include an overview of the implementation of the Competitiveness Compass, the Clean Industrial Deal, and the Single Market Strategy, as well as the annual report of the Single Market Enforcement Task Force.
More information
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