The public hearing of the Single Market Observatory (SMO) of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Budapest provided Hungarian civil society organisations a unique opportunity to express their views on how to best relaunch the European Single Market and to debate the Single Market Act with their counterparts at European level.

The president of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Staffan Nilsson, insisted that the EESC could lead the debate on giving a new impetus to the Single Market. He called on the Commission to take due account of the EESC's recommendations and concluded by saying that Europeans need to believe in their own future as others would not, this is why we need a more social, however more competitive Single Market.

Edgardo Maria Iozia, president of the SMO, underlined the Committee's search for an early consensus on the draft opinion by relying on one rapporteur from each Group and thus overcoming possibly diverging interests and different cultures. Pamela Brumter, representing the European Commission, called for a real joining of forces with stakeholders, which the SMO public hearing would clearly contribute to.

The Committee's draft opinion, which is due to be adopted in the EESC Plenary of 15-16 March 2011, views the 50 Commission proposals as the start of a long term process to revive the Single Market. This process should never stop because the Single Market is work in progress. The EESC identified a number of missing elements in the Single Market Act as well as its own priorities among the proposed measures. It will make its own concrete recommendations when the Commission tables implementation proposals.

This public hearing also demonstrated close cooperation with the Hungarian Economic and Social Council, as its Vice-President and former EESC Member Janós Tóth said that social economy seemed to have found its way back into the Commission's work programme. Joost van Iersel, President of the EESC's 2020 Steering Committee, added that the EU 2020 Strategy, as a follow-up to the Lisbon Agenda, needed to join with the Single Market Act to design Europe's future whilst rationally coping with crises.