European Union News - Internal Market

In 2011, the number of nights spent in hotels and similar establishments in the EU reached a peak of 1.6 billion nights. This means a record number of nights spent in hotels in the EU in 2011 and an increase of 3.8% compared with 2010. The highest numbers of nights spent in hotels were recorded in Spain, Italy, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

The EBRD President, Thomas Mirow, has called for a greater role for private sector in boosting food output. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will support moves to combat price volatility in order to unleash the untapped production potential.

The Commission published its latest outlook for EU industry in which it points out that industry is 1% down. In particular, in the last three months to November 2011, manufacturing production was some 1% higher than a year ago, but also 1% below the level registered in the preceding three months. Furthermore, the Commission confirms that business confidence has declined, but still remains broadly at its long-term average.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) welcomed the confirmation of its Triple-A rating by S&P. This agency backed the EIB and the EBRD performance and also expects the Banks' loan performance to remain good in 2012.

According to the data released by Eurostat, in December 2011 the Euro area inflation and the EU annual inflation were down in comparison with November. Monthly inflation was 0.3% in December 2011 for both, the Euro area and the EU

The European Defence Agency presented the European Defence Standards Reference system (EDSTAR) portal which replaces the European Handbook for Defence Procurement (EHDP). The new portal contains references to “Best practice” standards and "standard-like" specifications. EDSTAR is to be used by governmental organisations and defence industry for the procurement of defence materiel (including development and production).

According to the results of a Commission's study, 85% of net new jobs1 in the EU between 2002 and 2010 were created by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Overall, the employment growth for SMEs (with 1% annually) was higher than for large enterprises with 0.5%. A clear exception is the trade sector, in which employment in SMEs increased by 0.7% annually, compared to 2.2% in large enterprises.
 

The biannual information on euro banknote counterfeiting shows that the overall quantity of counterfeits withdrawn from circulation in 2011 was 19.3% lower compared with the figures for 2010. In addition, the European Central Bank also announced that the number of monetary financial institutions in the euro area and in the EU decreased further in 2011.

The measure proposed by the European Commission intends to deliver One Stop Shop for all electronically delivered services. According to the Commission, as from 1st January 2015, it will benefit businesses dealing with multiple VAT obligations that can be very burdensome and costly. The One Stop Shop approach for EU trade across borders will be applied first to e-commerce, broadcasting and telecom services. In the future the Commission will seek to extend the One Stop Shop to other goods and services.

A Commission's report recently published which provides an outlook on agricultural commodity market developments, shows that the agricultural commodity prices are expected to stay firm over the medium term.

The Green Paper consultation adopted by the Commission seeks the views of stakeholders on how to create a secure and transparent integrated payments environment throughout the EU which could create more efficient, modern and safer means of payments. The deadline for submitting contributions to the consultation is 11 April 2012.

The European Commission presented an action plan aimed at doubling the volume of e-commerce in Europe by 2015. In particular, the Communication presents 16 targeted initiatives for doubling the share of e-commerce in retail sales (currently 3.4%) and that of the Internet sector in European GDP (currently less than 3%) by 2015.