Single Market and Customs Programme for 2028-2034

602 Press & Media
Competitiveness

Background

The European Commission has published a Single Market and Customs Programme for 2028-2034, merging five existing programmes into an integrated instrument with a budget of EUR 6.2 billion. Despite the single market’s thirty-year history, there are still major barriers to the free movement of goods, services, persons and capital. The new programme addresses persistent challenges including fragmented administrative practices, limited interoperability between national databases, and inconsistent enforcement of customs and tax obligations across Member States. With the growth of e-commerce and the end of the de minimis rule exempting parcels valued at up to EUR 150, the volume of cross-border transactions requiring oversight has increased dramatically, particularly due to imports from Asia via digital platforms.

The EESC regards this programme as essential for completing the single market and ensuring fair competition and consumer protection. The current shortcomings in the system –with only 4.5% of goods cleared through customs undergoing physical checks, according to the European Court of Auditors – undermine both the EU’s financial interests and product safety standards. For civil society, including workers, consumers, and businesses, these gaps create unequal market conditions and expose the public to non-compliant and unsafe products that are thus able to enter the EU market.

 

Key points

The EESC:

  • considers that the programme in question pursues the right strategy by devising measures and support aimed at increasing and improving cooperation between the Commission and Member States, and among the Member States, in matters pertaining to the single market, Customs Union, taxation and efforts to combat fraud;
  • urges the European Commission to encourage Member States to boost human resources in customs authorities and in services collecting customs duties and taxes, especially in those Member States that receive the most imports from Asia, and with regard to parcels sent via digital platforms that are located there;
  • calls for the simplification of EU regulations to be accompanied by similar changes in each Member State’s legislation, so that national laws do not make it difficult for individuals and businesses to apply the rules;
  • recommends that digitalisation of the procedures to be followed by individuals and businesses should not result in greater complexity or in an increase in their reporting or other obligations;
  • considers it important to support consumer associations, given the key role they play in consumer dispute resolution arrangements, in monitoring the compliance of products circulating on the single market, and in efforts to boost financial literacy.

Read the opinion.

 

Additional information

Section: Single Market, Production and Consumption

Opinion number: INT/1104

Opinion type: Mandatory

Rapporteur: Vasco De Mello

Reference: [COM(2025) 590 final – 2025/0590 (COD)]

Date of adoption by section: 8.1.2026

Result of the vote: 92 in favour / 0 against / 0 abstentions

Date of adoption in plenary: 22.1.2026.

Result of the vote in plenary:

 

Contacts

Press officers: Flavia Badircea and Laura Lui

Tel.: +32 2 546 9189

Email: laurairena.lui@eesc.europa.eu

Administrator: Marco Manfroni

Tel.: +3225469140

Email: marco.manfroni@eesc.europa.eu

Work organisation