Statement by the EESC Employers' Group President ahead of the EU Leaders’ Retreat on EU Competitiveness

Competitiveness begins with action: Europe must move from words to delivery.

The goal is clear, yet the delivery has not matched the ambition. Despite many declarations and repeated references to the Draghi report as Europe’s economic compass, the latest 2026 Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report shows that Europe’s competitiveness is being eroded not only by rising external pressures, but by persistent and costly internal fragmentation of the Single Market. Complacency continues to shape the political agenda.

On 12 February, EU leaders will face the choice: remain trapped in incrementalism or finally deliver decisive transformation, completing the Single Market to unleash lasting growth. Europe sabotages its own economy far more than US tariffs could: internal barriers between EU members act like a 44% tariff on manufactured goods and a 110% levy on services. It remains a mystery, why European leaders cannot manage to remove these obstacles.

Europe’s economy can no longer afford procedural hesitation. While others accelerate, Europe still debates. Our regulatory culture must evolve from sticks to carrots: from over-control to enabling innovation, investment, and enterprise. Competitiveness should be the compass guiding every European decision.

The Employers' Group of the European Economic and Social Committee has a message to the EU leaders: if the Leaders’ Retreat just delivers another communiqué, European businesses and employers will feel betrayed and will continue to close shops in Europe.

Europe has the talent, technology, and 450 million-strong market to set global pace. Governments hold the power to turn things around—but only if they break free from national mindsets and act with European interests at heart.

This means:

• make the Single Market work
• use the next MFF strategically to invest in European cross-border infrastructure, security and innovation, leveraging also the Savings and Investments Union
• an EU-wide Permitting Omnibus with ‘silence means consent’ deadlines for all infrastructure, enforced by 2027
• take the competitiveness check serious – for all legislative proposals.

Europe needs globally fit champions. It needs firms that can innovate, merge, and compete on equal terms with global rivals. That requires rules grounded in realism, agility, and confidence.

This is what the Leaders' Retreat needs to deliver. Competition policy, too, must shift from limiting risk to enabling scale. 

By Sandra Parthie, EESC Employers' Group President.