The Joint Research Centre (JRC) Director stressed in a roundtable on "Scientific support to Internal Market" that the JRC stood ready to build on its current research and contribute, along with policy Directorates General, both to short and long term efforts to improve the functioning of the single market.

Around 90 experts discussed how science-based advice can further develop the EU's internal market in a roundtable on "Scientific support to Internal Market" organised by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), at the initiative of the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Michel Barnier. In his closing remarks, JRC Director General, Dominique Ristori, called for integrating more science to support smart regulation and economic governance. He said that full implementation of the Services Directive required more in-depth analysis on the evaluation and monitoring of the barriers to the services market. In July 2012, the European Commission presented measures to boost the European Research Area.

On the e-commerce, the Director General affirmed that more analysis was a pre-condition to understanding what hinders online transactions and what drives geo blocking of access to websites and products from other countries in order to unlock its great potential, as e-commerce borders remain limited.

The single market is still fragmented in some sectors due to remaining barriers and cross-border obstacles. Some examples are the Services directive, which is not fully implemented yet at national level, as well as cross-border e-commerce and e-procurement, which are far from having reached their full potential. In addition, according to the JRC, there's need to create a modern copyright framework for the digital single market and more effective co-operation at all levels to fight counterfeiting and piracy.