EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Brussels, 7.6.2018

SWD(2018) 320 final

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT

IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Accompanying the document

PROPOSAL FOR A REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

establishing the Programme for single market, competitiveness of enterprises, including small and medium-sized enterprises, and European statistics and repealing Regulations (EU) No 99/2013, (EU) No 1287/2013, (EU) No 254/2014, (EU) No 258/2014, (EU) No 652/2014 and (EU) No 2017/826

{COM(2018) 441 final}
{SEC(2018) 294 final}

Table of contents

1.Introduction: Political and legal context

2.THE OBJECTIVES

3.Programme structure and priorities

4.Delivery mechanisms of the intended funding

5.How will performance be monitored and evaluated?

Annex 1: Procedural information

Annex 2: Stakeholder consultation

Annex 3: Evaluation results

Annex 4: Programme specific annex on An Ambitious Competition policy for a stronger Union in the digital age ('THE COMPETITION PROGRAMME')

Annex 5: Programme specific annex on IT and business solutions for the Single Market

Annex 6: Programme specific annex on European Statistical Programme' (ESP)

Annex 7: Programme specific annex on Implementation and Development of Single Market for Financial Services

Annex 8: Programme specific annex on Standards in the field of reporting and auditing

Annex 9: Programme specific annex on Enhancing the involvement of consumers and other end-users in Union policy-making in financial services (ICFS)

Annex 10: Programme specific annex on Company law and anti-money laundering

Annex 11: Programme specific annex on Consumer programme and New Deal for consumers

Annex 12: Programme specific annex on Internal Market - Governance tools

Annex 13: Programme specific annex on Internal Market – Support to Standardisation activities

Annex 14: Programme specific annex on Internal market – operation and development of the internal market for Goods, Services and Public Procurement

Annex 15: Programme specific annex on COSME

Annex 16: Programme specific annex on Health programme

Annex 17: Programme specific annex on Food Chain Programme

Annex 18: Programme specific annex on Customs and tax policy development support budget line

Annex 19: Programme specific objectives

Annex 20: Programme specific Indicators

Glossary

1.Introduction: Political and legal context

The Single Market is a cornerstone of the European Union. Since its inception, it has proved a major contributor to growth, competitiveness and employment. It is one of Europe’s major achievements and its best asset in an increasingly global world. It is also an engine for building a stronger, more balanced and fairer EU economy. To fully deliver the Single Market on the ground, the substantial body of EU legislation and standards underpinning it is not sufficient in itself. Adopting rules is only one part of the picture; making them work is just as important: citizens and businesses need to know their rights, local administrations need to know how to apply the rules and courts need to know how to enforce them. This means information tools, training programmes or emergency mechanisms need to be in place. Financial support within the EU Budget is thus indispensable to help ensure the effective operation of the Single Market. This is ultimately a matter of trust in the EU, in its capacity to create growth and jobs while protecting the public interest.

The achievements of the Single Market are not irreversible. They will require continued investment in the future not only to be preserved but also to achieve their full potential and for the EU to be able to address new economic challenges. In view of the increasing pressure from global competitors and in the absence of appropriate financing, there is a risk that the effectiveness of the Single Market would be undermined and that fragmentation and protectionist tendencies within the EU could increase. This would in turn impact the way citizens perceived the benefits of European integration. The EU has an interest, therefore, in ensuring that such support framework continues to function to the benefit of the EU economy and citizens.

1.1.Scope and context

One of the priorities of the Juncker Commission is to establish a deeper and fairer Internal market, as shown in particular by the adoption of the Digital Single Market 1 , of the Single Market Strategies 2 and the Capital Markets Union Action Plan 3 , all in 2015. A strong Single Market is also seen as a precondition for a stronger Union in the President's "6th scenario" for the future set out in the State of the Union speech of 2017 4 . This requires a consistent effort in all the relevant fields of the Single Market. To be in a better position to tackle them, in a context of budgetary constraints, the EU needs to seek synergies and prevent duplication and fragmentation in its support to the Single Market. It also needs to ensure greater visibility and coherence of its action towards Single Market users, who may find in particular the proliferation of tools and support programmes confusing.

Strengthening the governance of the Single Market is also fully in line with the numerous Council conclusions or European Parliament Resolution dealing with the Single Market most notably in the Competitiveness Council conclusions of 29 February 2016 on the Single market strategy (Ref 6622/16) and of the Resolution of the European Parliament of 26 May 2016 on the Single market strategy (Ref. 2015/2534 (INI)).

As a result, the Commission concluded on the need to propose a programme for the Single Market for the next multiannual financial framework.

At the time of submission to the Regulatory Scrutiny Board 5 various scenarios for the COSME, ISA² and Health programmes were under discussion. Either programme could remain integrated in the Single Market Programme or adopted as part of another programme or, in the case of COSME, part of the programme could be moved to the InvestEU Fund. If any of these programmes or parts of them were to be adopted under another programme, the present impact assessment would nevertheless remain valid by disregarding the relevant elements.

Following the finalization of this Impact Assessment the loan guarantees for SMEs previously provided for under the COSME programme, will be implemented under the SME window of InvestEU 6 in a format further described in this impact assessment 7 .

After the submission of this impact assessment to the Regulatory Scrutiny Board a political decision was taken by the Vice-Presidents that the Health programme will be implemented as part of the European Social Fund+. Through different actions, the Health programme and the Food Chain programme aim to ensure a high level of health protection (of humans, animals, plants) in the Single Market as mandated by Articles 114 and 168 TFEU. In other words, they contribute fully and appropriately to the objectives of the Single Market programme, notably (but not exclusively) to the objective of ensuring that the operation of the internal market "take(s) as a base a high level of protection" in matters concerning health.

On the other hand, measures under the Health programme are also characterized by a strong social dimension, in that they also aim to address health inequalities and health social determinants, issues which citizens and stakeholders in general consider to be better addressed in conjunction with other measures of the EU social pillar. The results of the open public consultation for the Internal Market programme indeed confirm citizens' and stakeholders' views in that sense, without questioning the relevance of the Health programme measures for the functioning of the Single Market or their objectives.

This means first that, when the Health programme be integrated into the European Social Fund+ framework instead of the present programme, its measures will continue to play a key role in ensuring the smooth functioning of the Single Market (for patients moving across borders, for products – pharmaceuticals, medical devices, blood, organs, etc.). Secondly, that the health dimension and objectives of the Internal Market programme will remain valid, and they will be pursued both through the measures of the Food Chain programme and through synergies to be established with the Health programme. To all extent and purposes, the Health programme impact assessment was an integral part of the Single Market programme impact assessment.

Implementing these actions through other MFF programmes changes the size of the programme but does not materially alter the objectives, suggested programme structure and delivery mechanisms for the Single Market Programme. Non-participation of any of these programmes may affect certain synergies quantitatively but not qualitatively as these synergies could still be partially achievable.

A stand-alone Impact Assessment for COSME 8 , ISA2 9 and the Health Programme 10 have been drafted and are annexed to the Single Market programme. For the purpose of presenting the impact assessment for the Single Market Programme, these elements will remain included in the further analysis.

The baseline for this impact assessment includes both the current MFF and the theoretical impact of the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU (EU27 baseline scenario) 11 for 14 programmes and budget lines dealing with specific aspects of the Single Market. The total current budget is just under €6bn or 0.55% of the total EU28 budget meaning that the existing programmes and budget lines provide substantial EU value added with a very limited impact on the EU budget.

Following upstream guidance from the Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB) this impact assessment will focus on the merging of the existing programmes and not analysis of the individual programmes and budget lines 12 described in table 1.1, along with the additional commitments undertaken since the adoption of the current MFF by the Commission as described in table 1.2 13 . It also includes the analysis of proposed new interventions to support the functioning of the Single Market under the new MFF as described in table 2.1.    

Potential benefits of grouping existing programmes and budget lines together, such as flexibility in terms of fund allocation, simplification of programme structure, management and delivery modes and exploitation of synergies (e.g. avoiding duplication of efforts or common actions), will be explored.

This impact assessment satisfies the requirements of the Financial Regulation in respect of preparing an ex-ante evaluation.

The selected programmes and budget lines under the current multiannual financial framework are united by their shared objectives to regulate, implement, facilitate, enforce and protect various activities and actors within the Single Market regulatory framework. Thus they are all, in their different ways, essential for the functioning of the Single Market. The selected budget lines include activities that support delivery of the Single Market in the wider sense, such as the need to safeguard the health of humans, animals and plants, so as to preserve a well-functioning Single Market and its resources and its activities. It includes supporting business opportunities for SMEs through access to finance and new markets and encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit in the Single Market. These programmes and budget lines are an important contribution to empower citizens, consumers, businesses and administrations in the Single Market. They are included in the scope of the Single Market programme to ensure their uninterrupted delivery.

Furthermore, it should be noted that, while it undoubtedly contributes to the delivery of Single Market policies, the European Statistical Programme covered by this impact assessment has a transversal character which is wider than the Single Market as it serves all policies of the Union based on Article 338 TFEU. Therefore it is important to ensure that the inclusion of the European Statistical Programme in the scope of this programme does not jeopardise the continued provision of high quality statistics on Europe to support the design, monitoring and evaluation of all Union policies, including empowering businesses and citizens to take informed decisions.

Table 1.1 Initial commitments under the scope of the Single Market Programme

Whereas this Impact Assessment does not discuss the budgetary allocations for the overall programme and each of its components, it is important to note that the initial assumption provided for its preparation was to base this proposal on the basis of the current 2014-2020 MFF allocations. Concretely, this represents that the contents in terms of activities and actions included in each of the individual programmes in this Impact Assessment and its annexes are based on the assumption of that minimum baseline (MFF 2014-2020).

The EU-27 budget scenario is equivalent to approximately 1% of EU GNI following the UK's departure, i.e. entailing a 15% cut in relation to the current 2014-2020 MFF allocations (so called "EU 27 baseline scenario").

Bearing in mind that this programme is the added sum of a large number of programmes, some with an already limited budget, considering a 15% (or €0.9bn) reduction would have a direct impact and would impede some of the actions considered in this impact assessment (e.g. cuts would impair the collective capacity of the European statistical system to make the necessary investments in digital technologies and new data sources to produce in-time statistics with the required level of disaggregation across regions and population groups which will result in a reduction of statistical production across policy areas).

Compared to the baseline in 2014 the Commission has undertaken a number of new commitments during the current MFF that would also need to be financed under the next MFF as described in table 1.2.

Table 1.2 – Additional commitments by the Commission from 2014-2020

Taking existing (Table 1.1) and additional (Table 1.2) commitments together, the reference baseline budget would amount to €6.3bn or €5.4bn in the EU27 baseline scenario.

On 2 May 2018, the European Commission adopted its proposals for a new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027. It included the Single Market Programme as one of the proposals. This impact assessment report reflects the decisions of the MFF proposals and focuses on the changes and policy choices which are specific to the Single Market Programme.

Exclusions from the scope and coherence with other MFF programmes

The Single Market programme will function alongside other programmes with relevance for delivering the Single Market on the ground.

The cooperation activities supported under the Fiscalis and Customs programmes represent key elements to strengthen the Single Market. The customs union is a foundation of the Union and an enabler of the Internal Market and other EU political priorities. It has a key function not only in its traditional role of duty collection for the Union budget but also because customs authorities hold a central role in ensuring external border and supply chain security, contributing to the security of the European Union. As a result, Customs were not included into the Single Market programme due to their relevance under the security heading. Fiscalis has obvious links to the Single Market but supports a policy domain that remains subject to Member States' sovereignty and is based on the principle of unanimity in Council. Hence the decision not to have it merged with other Single Market programmes, which relate to areas under co-decision and/or falling under the exclusive competence of the Commission. However custom authorities still play an important role when controlling the safety or conformity of imports of food and non-food products. (30% of goods come into the Single Market from third countries). Import controls require close cooperation between customs and market surveillance, joint actions, linking up of IT systems at EU level as well as capacity building in Member States to align national systems. 

The effectiveness of the Single Market Programme, notably its public authorities' cooperation, is also dependant on the effectiveness of the Digital Europe programme as it will provide the digital interoperability and infrastructures needed by a number of EU programmes. As this programme is intended to be a major infrastructure programme under the new MFF, it has been decided not to distinguish digital Single Market issues from its broader infrastructure focus. Generic solutions developed under the Digital Europe Programme will be streamlined, made fit-for-purpose so they can be integrated into the IT solutions supporting the Single Market under the Single Market Programme. Common governance for the IT Interoperable solutions inside and outside the Single Market Programme could further increase the coherence across programmes. Artificial intelligence, big data analysis, access to data sources and other IT related issues form a core part of the Competition programme. As these activities also feature in the Digital Europe programme, the effectiveness of the Single Market Programme, including the Competition programme, will be boosted by the Digital Europe programme. Close cooperation and planning among services will facilitate the combination of measures from the Health programme and from the Digital Europe Programme to support Member States' efforts toward digitalisation of health services; and measures from the Health programme combined with expenditure from the structural funds to foster investments that are in keeping with the need to increased resilience and efficiency of health systems. 

The European Social Fund and ERASMUS+ will act as a catalyst to foster labour and youth mobility. As both will become major programmes in the field of investing in people under the new MFF, it has been decided not to distinguish free movement of workers issues from such a broader focus.

The European Regional Development Fund provides important support to SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups via financial instruments, grants for SME innovation, business-research cooperation, technology transfer and advisory services (including results stemming from other Union programmes), take-up of energy and resource efficient production methods, support to internationalisation, clusters and networking, and provision of infrastructures facilitating business development (e.g. broadband access, FabLabs, demonstrators, science parks) and improving institutions and governance (e.g. via eGovernment). The focus of the ERDF programmes are regionally and locally relevant impacts, in particular helping SMEs to benefit from digitisation, decarbonisation, circular economy and globalisation opportunities based on Smart Specialisation Strategies. Around 4% of the ERDF budget also supports trans-national cooperation, including to foster administrative cooperation, capacity building and integration among Member States. The Single Market Programme will take these investments into account when designing its work programmes in order to ensure complementarity.

Also, the programme will encourage SMEs to benefit from breakthrough innovation and other solutions developed under other EU programmes like the 9th Framework Programme and the Space programme. On Support to innovation Horizon 2020's SME instrument covers the business development and prototyping phases whilst COSME provides support to recipients via EEN and Financial Instruments. Finally, and subject to the caveat expressed in the section 1.1 Scope and context, the budget for the SME guarantee facility attributed to the COSME programme will be implemented under the SME window of the InvestEU Fund.

The Food Chain programme actions, such as veterinary measures in case of animal health crises implying culling of animals and decontamination of farms, could be complemented by market based interventions from the EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) programming. The inclusion of the Health programme in the ESF+ will foster synergies with the Single Market programme, notably through actions on Antimicrobial Resistance with the Food chain program, which is part of the Single Market Programme.

1.2.Lessons learned from previous programmes

Given the significant divergence in size, scope and organisation of the individual programmes and budget lines there is also significant divergence in the depth of lessons that can be extracted from each programme/budget line. The main lessons learned in individual programmes and budget lines included in the Single Market Programme are summarised in table 1.3 19 .

Table 1.3 Main lessons learned in programmes and budget lines included in the Single Market Programme

1.2.1.Key lessons learned from previous programmes

This section will extract key lessons common to all Single Market sub-programmes. These can be grouped into four main areas, as well as for the cross cutting objectives of the new MFF.

1) Empowerment of citizens, consumers and businesses in the Single Market

Businesses need information and assistance on product requirements, authorisations, taxes, registrations and support to access to finance; and citizens and consumers on practical formalities when moving abroad or purchasing safe goods and services in another country. Despite this, stakeholders in the open public consultation (40%) cited the lack of sufficient information and communication about programmes as one of the important obstacles reducing benefits of EU programmes. 21

Tools like Your Europe portal, Your Europe Advice, SOLVIT, Internal Market Information (IMI) system and the Single Market Scoreboard provide information, advice, assistance and problem-solving services based on close cooperation with national administrations and monitor the performance of the Single Market. Within the Commission, the Your Europe portal has become the primary EU portal in 2018 for information to citizens and businesses and the third-most consulted inter-institutional EU portal with 20 million visits in 2017.

Every year the European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) assist about 100.000 consumers to resolve disputes with traders from another Member State and an amicable solution found in at least 3 cases out of 4. Since 2004, over 20,000 alerts on dangerous products have been published thanks to the EU rapid alert system for dangerous consumer products (RAPEX). Since opening in 2016, the EU Online Dispute Resolution platform has attracted more than 4 million visitors.

Despite all this, only 6% of EU citizens feel that they are well informed about their rights as a citizen of the EU and only 36% feel that they are fairly well informed 22 . In the public consultation on the single digital gateway 23 , 80% of businesses found complying with national requirements in other countries difficult and 60% of citizens find it difficult or somewhat difficult to know which national requirements they should fulfil when moving to another Member State 24 .

The evaluation 25  of the functioning of market surveillance for products also revealed lack of awareness of rules by businesses and little transparency as regards product compliance.

In the competition area, Eurobarometer Citizen Surveys in 2010 and 2014 showed a lack of awareness of where to turn in cases of higher prices, fewer products or supplier choices or lower quality. In addition, a 2016 Eurobarometer survey showed only limited knowledge and awareness of State aid rules 26 . In 2016, the Court of Auditors also pointed to the need to increase awareness of and ensure more effective compliance with State aid rules by Member State authorities 27

2) Administrative cooperation and integration among Member States

Supporting administrative capacity and cooperation to achieve a high level of business compliance with EU rules is essential for ensuring that EU legislation does not remain on paper but is applied in practice, for the safety of consumers and for establishing a level playing field across the Single Market. Around three quarters of public authorities regarded digitization of public institutions as a key challenge whilst, at the same time, policies supporting digitization were judged as the least successful by up to 18% of respondents.  28

In the field of the Single Market for goods and services, a number of market surveillance 'joint actions' have been successfully implemented to improve coordination across Member States. They have contributed to the identification of sensitive non-compliant products such as helmets, toys or childcare products but the problem of non-compliant products within the Single Market persists. For instance in 2015 a joint report found that 30% of children's high chairs tested presented a serious or a high risk. The REFIT evaluation 29 on the functioning of market surveillance found that non-compliance is driven among others by the fragmentation of the organisation of market surveillance in the EU. Financing individual joint actions of market surveillance authorities needs to move to a more coherent coordination framework to reduce non-compliant products in the Single Market.

National consumer protection authorities have screened more than 5,000 websites since 2007 to identify and follow-up infringements of EU consumer laws. Since 2004, numerous coordinated actions have been carried out regarding product safety by the network of competent national market surveillance authorities and a specific cooperation has been established with China given the high share of notified dangerous products originating from this country. According to the 2017 evaluation of the EU consumer and marketing law, the legislative framework is fit for purpose but there is a need to better enforce rules and support redress on the ground to ensure consumer rights are a reality and faster and more efficient response is provided on EU wide cases as highlighted by recent large-scale cross-border issues, such as "Dieselgate", dual quality standards of foodstuff or the slow response to the problems of passengers stranded in large flight cancellations.

Cross-border cooperation between national authorities surveying the food supply chain is needed to preserve the safety of our foods as recognised by the recent Fitness Check evaluation of the General Food Law in relation for instance to the functioning of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) 30 . For example, it has been estimated that an escalation of African swine fever outbreaks could lead to losing export markets in pig meat products worth €5 billion per year with very significant impacts on jobs and farmer incomes and a significant potential impact on the EU budget due to pressures to support prices and compensate for income losses. These risks have been avoided to date due to the range of support measures to assist Member States to combat the disease. 

The horse meat crisis in 2013 and similar fraudulent food practices reported in the EU have also shown the need to improve cross-border cooperation. Such crises show the need to strengthen the capability of national enforcers to detect, prevent and pursue violations of food chain requirements, and potential frauds 31 . Food safety tops the list of challenges for the EU, with 75% of answers in the consultations.

3) Rule-making, standard setting and enforcement at EU institution level

To prepare and evaluate policies, support standard setting and enforce EU legislation, the Commission needs up to date and reliable data. For instance, the European statistical programme has been developed to produce and disseminate high quality European statistics which are indispensable for EU decision-making and for the measurement of the performance and impact of EU initiatives.

The importance of having up to date and relevant information is also visible in the need to continuously adapt policies and enforcement responses to fast evolving markets, new business models and new threats to consumers. Specifically the evaluation of the Consumer Programme indicated its slow capacity to respond to new market challenges driven by fast and often unpredictable societal and technological change and to specific limitations in certain Member States for an optimal uptake typically due to limited resources. Finally the production of evidence is valued but the timeframe is too slow.

The ongoing evaluation of the European Statistical Programme 32  showed that a permanent capacity to respond faster to emerging new data needs has to be developed. Globalisation, digitalisation and rapid technological change challenge the foundations of measuring economic performance, i.e. GDP and key economic indicators. Therefore, substantial efforts also need to be invested in developing new methodologies. Data collections need to be adapted using all available data sources.

4) Health as a resource for society and the Single market

Human, animal and plant health, and a safe food supply chain, are a prerequisite for society and for the smooth functioning of the Single Market and promoting trade. Cross border health and food crisis disrupt the functioning of the Single Market by limiting the movements of persons and goods and disrupting production. Protection of health and food safety was quoted by three quarters of respondents to public consultations as the key challenge for the EU.

Health is the third among main concerns of citizens 33 mentioned by 20% of Europeans, and stands in first place in eight countries, with the highest scores seen in the Netherlands (54%), Hungary (42%) and Finland (41%).. More than 70% of the public want "the EU to do more for health" 34  

The mid-term evaluation 35 of the third Health Programme confirmed the importance of increasing the capacity of the EU and Member States to prepare for and swiftly manage cross border health threats, of stepping up coordinated efforts to fight against antimicrobial resistance, to seek new forms of integrated actions to create economies of scale to help Member States deliver their healthcare duties 36 and foster interoperable and standardised cross-border exchange of health data, and the scaling up of best practices.

The mid-term evaluation of the Food Chain Programme 37 shows that all activities receiving EU financial support in this area remains essential to human, animal and plant health along the food chain and the support to trade with non-EU countries. The Food Chain Programme has also proven to be flexible in addressing emerging needs for co-financing especially in the occurrence of outbreaks of health threats.

1.2.2.Lessons learned concerning cross-cutting objectives of the new MFF

Participating DGs and the results of the open public consultation confirm simpler rules as the most desired change in the next MFF (90% of responses). This was followed by the need for flexibility and the exploitation of synergies between EU programmes and funds (60% to 75% of replies). In general, there is a high demand for rationalisations of EU funds among stakeholders but also with national and local authorities. 38

Uncoordinated approach to different actions:

- Data gathering and processing by different programmes

To prepare policies, set standards and check enforcement the Commission is often looking for specific evidence in commercial databases 39 . Pooling resources in this area between services could provide concrete gains. One significant example is access to a database containing detailed worldwide firm level information. Identical access to this dataset is currently bought by at least 4 Commission services, each paying approximately €100,000 a year.

Another example is Eurobarometer where each question costs around €15,000. This limits the number of questions asked by services. A more coordinated use of this tool by the services involved in Single Market policy making should produce synergies. Joint coordination and planning could increase SMP members bargaining power when asking for slots in the Eurobarometer planning calendar.

Greater coordination in studies can lead to a more value focused use of the budget and avoid unwanted duplications. Good examples were the cooperation of several Commission services to gather and analyse data on related Single Market topics such as the Public consultation on the regulatory environment for platforms, online intermediaries, data and cloud computing and the collaborative economy and the study "Mystery shopping survey on territorial restrictions and geo-blocking in the European digital single market". This can be further enhanced through a more coordinated assessment of needs and timing at planning stage.

- Trainings, and capacity building actions

Trainings on similar topics such as basic consumer law requirements for consumer organisations and SMEs organisations could benefit from a common core of principles and branding while ensuring adaptation to the needs of consumers and interests of SMEs which are very different.

The same applies to training programmes for national authorities on enforcement of Internal Market Law which are run separately by different Commission services, covering complimentary subjects and sometimes targeted to the same audience. For example, in the areas of Internal Market 40 , Consumer Protection 41 and Food Chain 42 trainings are run related to product and food chain safety and to verification of compliance which are targeted at national enforcement bodies and inspectors which could benefit from a common core and branding, while preserving the sectorial specificities. Different Commission services are also organising trainings for national judges 43 . Greater coordination could lead to simplification at Commission and at Member State level, particularly as some are resource intensive activities and thus participation may be problematic for smaller national enforcement authorities. Moreover they may not be coordinated among Commission DGs. This is the case for instance with the purchase of testing/ laboratories services on product testing.

- Awareness raising activities

Awareness raising activities, when targeting the same audience may mean a duplication of management and administrative costs at the level of each DG. One such example is linked to awareness-raising on the circular economy (food waste, recycling, etc.) where different audiences need to be targeted.

Coordinated and cross-border enforcement

The Commission facilitates and supports coordinated actions or control campaigns by Member States in several areas such as joint enforcement actions on product and food safety or consumer protection law. These could be streamlined to avoid overlaps of similar actions covering the same sectors 44 45 .

- Support to network of Member State authorities

Most of the current programmes run different networks of Member State authorities or expert groups that consist of representatives of the Member States 46 . At present, the organisation of these different network meetings is not coordinated centrally which results in possible duplication and administrative burden. Exchange of the lessons learned from running these networks can also be improved. Moreover there are currently networks with similar interest or members whose meetings are not always adequately synchronised (e.g. competition and consumer protection networks are constituted of the same authority in several Member States).

- IT development

At present there are separate systems used for the cooperation between national competent authorities and the European Commission which are not interoperable or are implemented independently of each other due also to different legal basis and could benefit from greater convergence.  They often include the same national authorities which have to use different systems to exchange information in relation to particular fields. Around 80% of public authorities in the open public consultation asked for introduction of user-friendly IT tools and 65% for e-governance solutions 47 .

- Uncertainty about budget negotiations

Certain activities such as studies, surveys, evaluations, expert meetings, trainings and information activities 48 (accounting for at least €435m or 7% of the combined budget of the Single Market programmes and budget lines under the MFF2014-2020 49 ) are necessary for proper implementation of existing policies and are classified as Commission prerogatives. The legitimacy of prerogatives is frequently challenged by the Council and budget has to be negotiated every year putting these activities constantly under pressure. Conversely, the financial envelope for a programme is set for the whole MFF period and constitutes a reference amount for the budget authority during the annual procedure. This causes uncertainty each year as to how much money will be available for these essential support measures. Such uncertainty affects the quality of studies or evaluations that could span over several years and may affect the quality of final Commission proposals based on such evidence.

Simplification

Some programmes and budget lines have reported a need for simplification of administrative management and reporting procedures. In the area of supporting standardisation, evaluations revealed lack of a common understanding of the management of grant agreements and no solutions for electronic reporting tools and data comparability issues. This complicates both reporting and measurement of impacts and performance of individual actions. The evaluation of the Consumer Programme also showed that there seems to be significant room for simplification for grants management.

As regards the Food Chain Programme, reimbursement mechanisms to Member States can be simplified to reduce unnecessary burdens on the Commission and the recipients alike. Similarly, in the Health Programme simplified forms of grants, such as lump sums, unit costs and flat rates could be used.

In the open public consultation, respondents underlined that complex procedures leading to high administrative burden and delays were considered as the most important obstacles reducing benefits of EU programmes (around 80% of answers)  50 .

Going forward, there is scope for simplification and cutting down the number of small, one-off actions in COSME and devote the resources towards the key areas of intervention (e.g. access to finance, access to markets) where a sustained effort and economies of scale will yield the highest efficiency and the biggest impact at EU level.

Flexibility

Lack of flexibility in case of unforeseen events is considered by stakeholders (60%-70% of answers) as an important obstacle to fully exploiting the benefits of EU programmes 51 .

This is particularly the case in the Food Chain Programme and in the Health Programme, where there is a need to establish a direct mechanism to react to large scale health threats or emergencies affecting food, animals and plants. Since the EU 2014-2020 MFF, the reserve for crises in other sectors such as agriculture is, for instance, not available for the food chain area. In the event of serious health crisis or outbreaks of veterinary and phytosanitary epidemics, such as the recent case of avian influenza, the financial support to counter those threats or to implement eradication activities and to timely contain the spread of these epidemics could become difficult as their budgetary impact might not always be accommodated within the ceiling of the current programme.

The European Statistical Programme also calls for the inclusion of a specific mechanism, ensuring a certain budgetary flexibility in order to cope with new and emerging statistical needs and ad-hoc data collections.

Flexibility is also required in those areas where standardisation is used to implement legislation. The absence of common budget lines for standardisation and food safety lead to a 3 year delay in developing necessary standards following the entry into force of the Regulation on the placing on the market and use of feed. Another similar example is the Child Resistance Requirements for Cigarette Lighters where development of the standard was delayed by two years.

1.3.Main findings of public consultation

The public consultation on the Multiannual Financial Framework proposal took place between 10 January 2018 and 9 March 2018. The questionnaire covered areas of investment, research and innovation, SMEs and Single Market.

Among challenges relevant to the Single Market Programme the most important were access to finance, especially for SMEs and digital transition of economy (82%), promotion of public health (79%), support to industrial development (78%) and fair competition and safe food (75%). Generally between 20 and 50% of respondents considered SMP releated policies as fully or fairly well contributing to these challenges. Smooth circulation of goods both within EU and at EU borders was judged highest (50% of all replies). Followed by support to industrial development (42%), provision of EU statistics (40%) and support to capital flows and investments (39%). Only up to 12% of respondents considered that these policies are not sucessful at all 52 .

2.THE OBJECTIVES 

2.1.Challenges for the programmes of the next MFF 

Maintaining the achievements of the Single Market and addressing new challenges to achieve the Single Market's full potential will require continued investment.

2.1.1.Existing challenges for a Single Market Programme

Existing challenges for a Single Market Programme are foreseen in four areas in particular:

1.The Single Market is still fragmented, knowledge about it is lacking and doing business remains cumbersome, and especially SMEs face hurdles when starting or scaling-up a business or when looking for finance.

The Single Market is still far from perfect. In particular the Single Market for services needs action to remove remaining barriers for companies. The regulatory framework needs to accommodate new innovative business models. The Single Market should also become more competitive and integrated to better benefit consumers, businesses and employees and to ensure financial stability. Strong consumer organisations and national competent authorities are needed to follow the rapid development and increasingly complex retail markets, to act to counterbalance market asymmetries and advocate consumers’ interests. Limited awareness and/or expertise is also limiting the capacities of consumers, businesses or public administrations to meet the challenges stemming from the transition to a green, circular and low-carbon economy and thus contribute to this transition via changes    on retail markets. Tools also need to be developed for consumer knowledge and to support the building up of capacities of NGOs supporting consumers and/or specific groups of citizens (e.g. those subject to "vulnerability patterns").

The administrative burden to operate a business, such as obtaining permits and licenses, or complying with regulatory framework in the area of company law and corporate governance often remains high. In addition, there is often a lack of entrepreneurial spirit to generate new activity. Newly created companies and smaller firms still do not sufficiently reap the opportunities offered by the Single Market and by internationalisation. They also face difficulties in obtaining finance and in the uptake of innovation; they do less business on-line than bigger firms and have difficulties in finding the right skills. While SMEs are essential to generate jobs and growth, they are limited in their contributions by these barriers, and to a greater extent than bigger firms.

2.Cooperation between Member States and enforcement at national level is still too limited and cooperation between Member States and the Commission needs to be further strengthened

Member States authorities need to improve cooperation between themselves. Exchanges on best practices and joint market surveillance across Member States are insufficiently used as demonstrated during the preparation of the goods package proposal 53 . Enforcement authorities may lack state-of-the-art tools to share intelligence and investigate increasing complex products, online business models and international supply chains and their capacities may remain uneven. E-commerce sales of non-compliant and unsafe products is a concern. However Member States' internet investigation capacity and instruments (both for general product safety requirements and for food chain requirements) do not keep up with international trade and supply chain developments, also due to sub-optimal exchange of information across border and with customs authorities. Market surveillance authorities often lack resources, leading to EU rules not being equally enforced or applied which endangers a level playing field and encourages regulatory arbitrage. In the health and food chain areas, effective implementation of statutory requirements is a prerequisite to ensure the safety of commodities and citizens in the Single Market.

National administrations lack data on the use of certain policy tools. This is the case for public procurement, which impacts the governance of public procurement systems, the detection of problems or the efficiency of public policies and public spending. Finally, EU competition policy requires enforcement and compliance at national level in the area of State aid where cooperation with national authorities and courts needs to be strengthened to prevent fragmentation of the Single Market.

3.EU rules and standards are at risk of falling behind in terms of speed, excellency and relevance and EU level law enforcement needs to adapt to new challenges

EU rules and standards are not always up-to-date or future proofed. Insufficient knowledge on the application of existing acquis and on transposition measures in Member States puts the relevant legislation at risk. EU level law enforcement needs to adapt to the digital age for effective detection of possible infringements and efficiency in its enforcement. At global level, the progressive globalisation of trade call for increased convergence on international standard setters and coordinated enforcement of rules to ensure a reliable business environment for companies operating across the world.

4.If health of humans, animals and plants is not preserved, the good functioning of the Single market and of the society as a whole is under threat

Health and the safety of food chains are invaluable resources for society. Failure to protect them will have a negative impact on people and on the free circulation of goods, services and people. Potential problems include risk of pandemics, cross-border health and food security threats; loss of biodiversity; insufficient information and data for Member States to respond to pressures to make health systems more effective, accessible and resilient. These can result in sustainable development goals becoming more difficult to reach, in hurdles for companies and/or professionals to introduce new innovative health technologies, in risk of premature mortality and increase of health inequalities. Resilient food chains also need to harness preparedness for cyclical outbreaks of animal diseases and plant pests.

The EU has an interest, therefore, in ensuring that this support framework continues to function to the benefit of the European economy and citizens. To be in a better position to tackle these challenges the EU needs to seek synergies and prevent duplication and fragmentation in its support to the Single Market. It also needs to ensure greater visibility and coherence of its action towards its users, who may find the proliferation of tools and support programmes confusing.

2.1.2.Main adjustments to existing activities under the Single Market Programme

The evaluations and lessons learned of the included programmes and budget lines show that they have all brought added value and should continue. It has however been shown that a number of adjustments are needed in the existing activities under the Single Market Programme, Table X shows the main adjustments across all programmes 54 .

Table 2.1 Main adjustments in existing programmes/budget lines

2.1.3.New political priorities or emerging problems needing EU intervention

Support to EU Competition policy

The macroeconomic impacts of EU competition enforcement are significant 55 . At the same time, the increasing sophistication of the IT tools and algorithms used by companies for conducting their business, as well as the steadily growing volume of electronic communications and economic data that need to be analysed in competition cases have significantly increased the complexity of the investigations handled by the Commission. This will therefore require sophisticated, tailor-made IT tools and equipment and the possibility to involve outside experts for certain technical issues, and the monitoring of remedies and ex-post assessment of the effectiveness of the Commission's enforcement action. Enforcement of EU competition law also requires deepening the cooperation between the Commission and the national competition authorities. This depends on well-functioning and state-of-the-art IT systems that allow for the timely and secure exchange of confidential information. The effectiveness of national State aid control, transparency and evaluation need to be enhanced as more than 97% of new State aid measures are being implemented without prior scrutiny by the Commission following the recent modernisation of State aid rules. In the absence of a support programme addressing those challenges, the enforcement of all branches of EU competition policy would gradually become less effective, less timely and less relevant to rapidly evolving market developments, thereby – by extension – threatening the proper functioning of the Single Market. Around three quarters of respondents to public consultations considered fair competition as an important challenge for the EU 56 . To address this gap this impact assessment also includes a new proposal for An Ambitious Competition policy for a stronger Union in the digital age as described in table 2.1 below and in the corresponding sector specific annex.

Innovation uptake by SMEs and industrial modernisation

A recent study 57 on advanced manufacturing provides evidence that there are barriers to the uptake of innovation, such as sufficient know-how, adequate human capital and organisational and managerial capacity. Small firms have much larger problems overcoming these barriers than large firms. While 75% of companies indicate the high costs of investment in advanced manufacturing technologies, an EIB study 58 shows that over 90% of smaller companies active in key enabling technologies struggle to raise the finance they need. More than 90% of SMEs in Europe also feel lagging behind in digital innovation. As the specialised competences are often concentrated in few countries and SMEs struggle to find the right partners, too few SMEs in the EU embrace advanced and additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence and augmented reality and master new service offerings, especially in traditional manufacturing sectors. This situation has a direct impact on the ability of small businesses to reap the benefits of the Single Market. A more strategic use of SME intermediaries such as clusters and business networks is needed to better help SMEs to scale-up and grow and to boost industrial modernisation. The proposal for a new Single Market Programme therefore also includes a new proposal for a new scaling-up instrument (e.g. lump sum grants) to provide growth acceleration support to over 20,000 SMEs engaged in strategic inter-regional collaboration for different industrial specialisations. This support is to be channelled via clusters and business networks, which provides a framework for the modernisation of and partnership between SMEs as described in table 2.1 below and in the corresponding programme specific annex 15 for the COSME programme.

Table 2.2 Proposed new commitments

As described in section 1.2, a number of lessons have been extracted in terms of cross cutting challenges to be addressed by the next MFF. A modern budget for the EU should not only continue to improve the delivery of both existing and new political priorities but also deliver solutions to the increasing need for flexibility, synergies and simplification. By adopting a Single Market Programme, that merges a large number of existing programmes, these cross-cutting challenges can be most appropriately addressed via the programme structure as described in chapter 3.

2.2.Objectives of the programmes of the next MFF

To tackle these challenges a programme for the Single Market should do two things in terms of general and design specific objectives:

1.Aim to support and develop a well-functioning Single Market where citizens, consumers and businesses, especially SMEs, can fully exploit opportunities, and are safe in the knowledge that their rights and human, animal and plant health are protected and where competition is preserved.

2.Reduce overlaps and explore synergies between the different Single Market programmes implemented by the Commission, offering ultimately better value for money and more efficient delivery on the ground.

The programme's main aim is to support a well-functioning Single Market, ensure high levels of health protection and appropriate action to counter cross-border health risks. To achieve this general objective in terms of contents the specific goals of the programme are:

·Empowering citizens/consumers (directly or indirectly), businesses (in particular SMEs) and public administrations to get full access to the opportunities offered by the Single Market.

·Fostering administrative cooperation between Member States and between the Member States and the Commission via information, best practice exchange and capacity building.

·Support to rule making, standard setting including at international level, and enforcement at EU level through financing data gathering and analysis.

·Foster the protection of health as an invaluable resource for society and the internal market 59 .

More operational objectives are presented and are analysed further in the detailed annex describing each action/subprogram.

The connection between the content specific objectives of the Single Market Programme and the operational objectives of the individual programmes/budget lines under the scope is described in table 2.2.and present the internal coherence between the objectives of the programme and the programmes and budget lines included under its scope.

While also supporting the objectives of the Single Market Programme, the European Statistical Programme, with its highly transversal character, will ensure the provision of high-quality statistics on Europe to support the design, monitoring and evaluation of the Union policies, using multiple data sources, advanced data analytics methods and digital technologies.

Table 2.3 Coherence between objectives for the Single Market Programme and objectives of individual programmes and budget lines 60

3.Programme structure and priorities

As demonstrated in section 1.2 and section 2.1 a number of both content specific and cross-cutting challenges run across the existing programmes and budget lines. The new Single Market Programme will have as its strong priority to achieve a programme structure that is both politically and legally feasible while addressing the need for flexibility, simplification and synergies.

To achieve both the abovementioned content specific and cross-cutting objectives for the programmes/budget lines under the proposed scope three overall scenarios for implementation are possible:

·Option 1: A business as usual scenario where implementation is a continuation of the current multiannual programmes and budget lines while adding the new spending proposals described in tables 1.1 and 2.1 with separate legal bases.

·Option 2: An integrated scenario where a new programme is adapted to deliver current and new programmes and budget lines falling under the scope via a single legal base that that is flexible enough to ensure preservation of specific legal and institutional requirements.

·Option 3: A fully unified scenario where a complete merger of all programmes under the scope is delivered under a single common basic act with identical legal and institutional requirements for all activities under the scope.

Under the 'business as usual' scenario the current structure of 14 separate programmes and budget lines would continue with the possible addition of new activities as described in tables 1.1.and 2.1.

This structure would not provide any new simplification or added flexibility. Cooperation and possible synergies in delivery of the budget would continue on an ad hoc basis as is the case today (e.g. as is already being done with the YourEurope platform). Feasibility is high since it is the continuation of already successful programmes/budget lines with the only potential complexity coming from establishing the new activities described in table 2.1. This option will be considered the baseline scenario for comparison with other possible structures of the programme.

The 'integrated scenario' expands on the business as usual scenario in the delivery of proposed activities through a joint programme. Under this scenario all existing prerogative lines and the administrative support from all the programmes and budget lines in the scope would be grouped together under a horizontal structure. This structure would allow for increased coherence, simplification, flexibility and synergies across the administrative spending (studies, data collection, IT tools, etc.) and on some content in the existing prerogatives (for example market information and enforcement actions).

Along with the horizontal structure, "pillars" would be created to accommodate the specific legal and institutional requirements for governance of each individual programme/budget line, such as the European Statistical Programme 62 or the emergency procedures under the food and feed programme, which have dedicated institutional/ governance settings and are not of relevance to other parts of the programme. This would ensure the uninterrupted delivery of such procedures and inclusion of the associated stakeholders where relevant.

Such an approach would place a limit on the synergies and simplifications that can be achieved. However, from a feasibility point of view this structure scores high because it can be implemented through a new unified basic act with sub-provisions for specific institutional/governance models and therefore avoid disruption to current policy objectives and governance models for existing programmes and budget lines.

Figure 3.1: Architecture for an Integrated Single Market Programme option 63

The third scenario is a fully 'unified programme' where a single legal structure covers all spending under the scope of the programme. This would potentially make it possible to develop synergies in a larger part of the operational and administrative categories of spending in all programmes and budget lines and potentially increase the scope of synergies significantly. However this would require extensive political debate in order to streamline different existing governance requirements into an approach that could potential satisfy all involved stakeholders and respond to specific EU intervention logic, in particular under the above mentioned pillars such as, for instance, the emergency procedures under the food and feed programme. There is a strong stakeholders support for the continuation of the current programmes so a "unified" programme could be badly perceived by stakeholders e.g. SMEs who could fear that’s the SME policy is not receiving sufficient recognition by the Commission. It is therefore not considered feasible that a single unified governance mechanism for a fully integrated programme can be found under the current legal and political requirements.

As summarized in table 3.1 the analysis shows that, scenario 1 (business as usual) would be feasible but would bring no added benefits in terms of flexibility, simplification and synergies between existing programmes/budget lines. This scenario would thus be inconsistent with the level of ambition identified for the next multiannual financial framework. On the other hand, scenario 3 (fully unified programme) for the Single Market would increase the scope of potential benefits significantly but due to the pre-existing diversity of activities under the scope it is considered prohibitively difficult to arrive at a governance model that can satisfy all necessary requirements and deliver simplification at the same time. For this reason this scenario is discarded. Scenario 2 would allow for a less ambitious but feasible pursuit of new simplification, flexibility and synergies across the programmes/budget lines included under the scope. Scenario 2 of an integrated Single Market Programme is therefore considered the preferred option and will form the basis for further analysis in the impact assessment.

Table 3.1 Analyses of a Single Market Programme in the next multiannual financial framework

3.1.Possible synergies under a changed MFF structure for the Single Market

The integrated Single Market Programme allows pursuing synergies for all supporting expenditure for the various programmes/budget lines under the scope (data gathering and processing, IT tools, etc.) and for a limited set of operational activities such as training and capacity building in Member States.

For the preparation of this section on synergies, data was compiled from Commission services involved in the programme and subsequently validated and developed in a half-day workshop on 2nd March 2018 (see section 1.2 for examples of issues related to uncoordinated approach to different actions). The result of this work is compiled in table 3.2 below.

As a result of closer cooperation between Commission services it would be expected that additional synergies are discovered and developed during the implementation of the Single Market Programme.

Table 3.2 Potential synergies in the Single Market programme

The potential synergy areas, solutions proposed and their pros and cons are:

- Trainings and capacity building

·Developing a general training offer under a Single Market capacity building heading. This would involve pooling together organisation of training activities, focusing on the preparation of re-usable training material, offered on-line (i.e., e-learning) and open to other EU institutions and to all Member States. Common, horizontal modules could be developed (e.g. on e-commerce, detection of fraudulent/deceptive practices, risk based planning of controls in the field of dangerous products) and would complement the modules for specific policy areas. This could also include a corporate approach for the organisation of trainings, for example through a framework programme for developing capacity training modules for both consumers and businesses under the same contract.

·Setting up a capacity building programme focusing on SMEs and covering different aspects under Single Market policies: dealing with consumers' issues, accessing finances, etc. or to other targeted groups (i.e. Consumers' associations).

·Coordinated approach to supporting Member States' enforcement capacities. Comprehensive national enforcement strategies could be the basis for funding support to Member States, covering capacity building, modernisation and alignment of control systems and funding of testing and controls.

A coordinated approach to training or a common training programme would avoid information overload and foster more cooperation between national enforcers in the Member States (in particular where cross cutting skill areas are needed for enforcement action, such as e-commerce or fraudulent practices), and create a centralised training offer related to enforcement in one place where e-learning materials could be provided in one place according to target groups across policy areas. The network of intermediaries 64 in the COSME programme would also facilitate better outreach, especially among SMEs

Organising these trainings together would reduce the number of trainings and will lead to resources savings, both on the side of the Commission and national authorities. Using joint contracts for trainings could increase the impact and reduce work on project cooperation which would result in cost savings. There could be however feasibility problems for national administrations to ensure participation at the right level in these joint trainings and also some programmes are subject to comitology procedure. 65

A coordinated approach to supporting Member States' capacities would allow simpler co-funding and more flexibility for them to seek co-funding of "mixed" programmes which may span over several funding opportunities but not fit into any of them. In those cases where this approach is feasible Member States could introduce requests for strategy/capacity building funding under a single programme and take a more holistic approach to the Single Market.

- Coordinated and Cross-border enforcement

·Commission coordinated cross-border enforcement campaigns by national authorities could be run in areas where several administrations need to be involved as in the case of product and food safety and cyber security issues, on commercial practices, personal data protection and Intellectual Property Rights or in the area of EU antitrust rules and merger cooperation. DGs organising coordinated or joint enforcement campaigns could come together for planning and exchanges of best practices and improve Commission engagement with national authorities.

·Single framework contract for procuring products testing by laboratories could be open to DGs supporting enforcement networks and joint actions and to national enforcement authorities for their controls of products in the Single Market.

Coordinated cross-border enforcement campaigns could help create cross-sectoral and cross-border investigation teams. The annual planning of these across different sectors would reduce overlaps and allow better exchange of experience. In cases where enforcement actions are voted/examined by a Committee feasibility may be a problem.

- Data gathering and processing

·Enhancing existing platforms on data available at EU level such as BASEXT 66 to better address the needs of the Single Market Programme.

·Making use of Eurostat advice and services for the production and dissemination of statistical information supporting SMP sub-programmes.

·A "Single Market Knowledge Hub" to gather and analyse market studies, performance indicators, country profiles, market research, Member State reports to organise all the information and allow for sophisticated analytics.

·Text mining: introduce thematic building blocks (instead of DGs building their own intelligence).

·Access to information, assistance and problem-solving services: all Single Market information and assistance services for citizens, consumers and business are to become more easily accessible through the single digital gateway.

·Common purchase of access to databases when needs are similar.

·Creation of a framework contract for studies with higher value and higher individual studies value, use of such framework contracts would be optional.

·Joint bid for Eurobarometer slots and coordination of questionnaires.

By grouping certain projects the services involved in the Programme could increase the size of their procurements, save on management costs and generate economy of scales 67 . This could allow services to get access to specific knowledge and to better pooling and analysis of market intelligence in bigger data sets. Data sets could also be required in the same, open format both from consultants and Member States which could lead to easier exchange and reporting. In addition, duplication of studies could be avoided and outcome of similar studies could be cross-checked for accuracy.

Making better use of the joint procurement of external databases will give the Commission a better bargaining position and allow significant savings compared to individual contracts with data suppliers. The potential savings for 5 DGs currently using the same database would be up to €400,000 per year and €2.8m during a seven year MFF (assuming purchase of data and storing it on Commission servers for all to have access to).

A bigger budget in joint bids for Eurobarometer slots and coordinated questions would allow asking more and more coordinated questions (cost savings on each duplicative question avoided is €15,000). Furthermore a joint proposal by several departments would gain higher priority in the Eurobarometer planning calendar.

Creation of framework contracts with higher value would enable having joint studies covering similar topics no longer constrained by budget and more flexibility in situations where one department runs out of budget while the other has a surplus. Such framework contracts could also be open to Member States.

An option to manage contracts separately should also be kept, in particular for DGs with specialised needs, where it would still be necessary to run separate studies to get the appropriate knowledge and so the qualitative outputs expected. High value would also mean that SMEs would probably need to form consortia in order to participate.

Support to networks of Member State authorities

·Pooling support activities to networks and centralised management of meetings.

·Framework contracts for meetings, web-meetings, conferences organisation support, common tools, common scheme for exchange of officials/investigations teams.

Pooling support activities could lead to a more efficient organisation of enforcement cooperation meetings and peer reviews among Member States as long as the centralised management doesn't create added bureaucracy at the expense of flexibility and speed in managing the networks which have different objectives, modes of work, participants or frequency of meetings.

Awareness raising activities

·Setting up networks for raising awareness of existing services and tools, signposting to the most relevant service providing information, assistance or problems-solving capacity. Developing a common brand and readily identifiable elements to all campaigns.

A coordinated approach in this field would produce economies of scale. Also the long-standing experience of awareness-raising activities and an extended network of intermediaries of COSME can provide additional leverage for all Single Market awareness raising activities.

Streamlining IT assets, Sharing IT development and operations

·The joint management of the Single Market Programme could facilitate a strengthened coordination of IT assets (frameworks, standards, solutions) currently supporting the various information systems used by the included programmes.

This approach would enable a more streamlined IT support across the Single Market Programme domains consistent with the corporate IT governance within the Commission. This enhanced collaboration between sectorial IT support will be a core driver in view of sharing and reusing common solutions across services and the pooling of IT resources. Besides reducing the total cost of ownership of the digital services, enabling scalability and reducing time to market and interoperability fragmentation, such an approach would contribute to critical mass towards a sustainable and aligned digital transformation that pays prime attention to cross-border, cross-sector dynamics.

For example, the information systems that are used for the cooperation between national competent authorities and the European Commission could benefit from technological overhauls and state of the art investments with a view to improve their effectiveness. The programme would also strive to reuse datasets across business portfolios and support policy principles such as the “once-only” – while ensuring due diligence of data privacy and other relevant legal provisions.

3.2.Possible simplifications and improved flexibility in a common MFF structure for the single market

·Better predictability and flexibility of budget for support activities

Supporting activities such as studies, evaluations, information campaigns and trainings of firms currently falling under the prerogative lines (around 7% of last MFF budget falling under the scope of the Single Market Programme) will be integrated into the programme allowing the budget for these activities to be fixed for the whole period of the MFF 68 . The benefit of predictable financing should allow for long term planning of supporting activities in product standardisation or financial services regulation. The increased financing stability will be accompanied by a higher level of political scrutiny over budget implementation. As discussed previously, the integration of existing prerogative lines and administrative spending will also allow for increased flexibility in adapting to changing needs across these areas of the new programme 69 .

3.3.Possible prioritisations in response to the EU27 baseline scenario

The lessons learned and stakeholder feedback shows that the activities to be included in the SMP provide strong EU added value and should as a matter of principle be continued. The SMP is only a small part of the budget in comparison with other MFF programmes (€6bn, 0.55% in current MFF). This limited budget is however supporting one of the most significant parts of the European Project. To decrease the available budget could endanger the functionality of the programmes especially taking into account the additional commitments as presented in the table 1.2, such as the Goods package, Health Technology Assessment or Single Digital Gateway.

Savings from the identified synergies will materialise mainly from cross-cutting implementation, better coordination, common enforcement, and as such are difficult to quantify. Although potential savings have been identified during the preparation of the IA they are marginal when compared to the EU27 baseline scenario. The identified synergies are mainly considered avenues for improved delivery of the content-specific objectives and if the SMP were reduced to the indicated EU27 baseline there would need to be real reductions in delivery which could not be offset by the potential synergies identified at this stage. The main responses to the EU27 baseline scenario are identified in table 3.3.

Table 3.3 Prioritisations in response to the EU27 baseline scenario

3.4.EU added value and legal base

3.4.1.EU added value

The need for EU intervention is already well established for the existing programmes/budget lines 70 and the proposed structure for a Single Market Programme would not alter the pre-existing rationale of these individual interventions.

In the open public consultation around 80% of stakeholders considered that EU programmes and funds add more value than could be achieved at national level. The Single Market is considered the best illustration of EU added value action, as it is a public good delivering real and tangible value. However, as new barriers continuously appear, some respondents ask for further standardization and for strengthened market surveillance with sufficient budget allocation 71 .

Although Member States are primarily responsible for delivering the Single Market on the ground the Commission as a guardian of the Treaties and the EU as a whole has an interest that this delivery is done in a coherent way, and that citizens, consumers and businesses enjoy the same rights and the same opportunities throughout Europe. Action at EU level is required to ensure the consistent development of the Single Market, non-discrimination, consumer protection, functioning competition, developing capabilities in, as well as cooperation and trust between Member States, tackle cross-border issues and ensuring the security of the Single Market. Developing a Single Market Programme can only be achieved at EU level as actions require active cooperation and coordination of national capacities.

For instance, to ensure that consumer and safety laws are respected across the Single Market, consumer authorities and associations have to cooperate to ensure an equal assessment and correction of practices in this field. The EU has to support such cooperation with adequate IT tools, evidence and legal expertise. In addition, the EU is best placed to support EU-level consumer representation, including financial services, awareness raising, collection of evidence, exchange of best practices and networking among authorities and bodies assisting and/or representing consumers. EU action is in particular required in the area of awareness-raising concerning the application of the EU competition rules and its effects for the functioning of the Single Market. In addition, safeguarding health as an invaluable resource for the society and the Single Market by protecting citizens and the economy against cross border health threats (for humans, and animals and plants equally) can only be effective and efficient if coordinated at EU level.

As regards the new proposal for An Ambitious Competition policy for a stronger Union in the digital age, a large body of literature and studies demonstrates the macroeconomic benefits of competition and competition enforcement. For instance, a study 72 from 2017 demonstrated that the Commission's cartel and merger decisions taken over the period 2012-2014 boosted GDP by 0.3% and employment by 0.2% after five years, similar to various estimates of the impact of the Services Directive 73 .. The competition enforcement action – which only covered part of EU level competition enforcement – was also found to reduce inequalities between rich and poor households.

The new Scaling-up instrument will directly leverage the high EU added-value of the COSME programme as it will target SMEs that are engaged in strategic interregional collaboration as part of clusters and encourage the transnational uptake of solutions to boost SMEs competitiveness. It will complement efforts at regional and national level and others measures at EU level, such as interregional collaboration of regional authorities under the European Regional Development Fund.

3.4.2.Legal base

According to settled caselaw, the choice of the legal basis for a European Union measure must be based on objective factors amenable to judicial review, which include the aim and content of that measure and not on the legal basis used for the adoption of other European Union measures, which might, in certain cases, display similar characteristics. In addition, where the Treaty contains a more specific provision that is capable of constituting the legal basis for the measure in question, the measure must be founded on that provision. If examination of a measure reveals that it pursues two aims or that it has two components and if one of those aims or components is identifiable as the main one, whereas the other is merely incidental, the measure must be founded on a single legal basis, namely that required by the main or predominant aim or component. With regard to a measure that simultaneously pursues a number of objectives, or that has several components, which are inseparably linked without one being incidental to the other, the Court has held that, where various provisions of the Treaty are therefore applicable, such a measure will have to be founded, exceptionally, on the various corresponding legal bases. Recourse to a dual legal basis is not possible where the procedures laid down for each legal basis are incompatible with each other 74

The basic acts establishing programmes currently in force which will be integrated into the Single Market Programme are based on diversified legal bases. Those include: Article 114 TFEU in case of activities supporting financial reporting and auditing 75 (and a large number of internal market measures that contain ancillary financing provisions), Article 169 TFEU and Article 169 (2) (b) TFEU concerning consumer protection 76 , Article 168 (5) TFEU concerning public health 77 , Articles 43 and 168 (4) (b) TFEU concerning measures in veterinary and phytosanitary fields 78 , Article 197 TFEU on administrative cooperation Article 173 TFEU encouraging a favourable environment for the development of undertakings, particularly small and medium-sized undertakings, Article 195 TFEU concerning tourism, and Article 338 TFEU on statistics.

In the light of the synergies obtained, the merging of the previous programmes has resulted in the proposal pursuing simultaneously four objectives that are inseparably linked without one being incidental to the other i.e. the internal market (Article 114 TFEU), measures in the veterinary and phytosanitary fields (Articles 43 and 168 (4) (b) TFEU), encouraging a favourable environment for the development of undertakings, particularly small and medium-sized undertakings (Article 173 TFEU) and statistics for EU policies (Article 338 TFEU).

4.Delivery mechanisms of the intended funding

Single Market governance, policy implementation and funding have traditionally been set up and implemented with a strong sector specific focus. Each of the programmes to be incorporated in the Single Market Programme has their own historic background and independent approach on implementation and delivery. The instruments used are direct funding by way of grants and financial instruments. Policy support actions are partly implemented by procurement. This is especially the case under the Commission prerogatives on budget lines not related to a funding programme and where tasks assigned to the Institutions by the Treaty require the exercise of discretionary powers in translating political choices into action 79 . Detailed descriptions of the delivery mechanisms for each budget line included in the scope of the Single Market Programme are described in the corresponding programme-specific annex.

Setting up this programme is an opportunity to streamline procedures, increase commonalities, adopt common management and delivery models and an opportunity to consider further the use of executive agencies to support programme implementation.

Finally, and subject to the caveat expressed in the section 1.1 Scope and context, and in line with the Commission's overall objectives of streamlining, increasing efficiency and achieving a better visibility of EU support, the successor to the SME guarantee facility of the COSME programme will be implemented under the SME window of the InvestEU Fund and under the rules established for the InvestEU Fund. The delivery of the SME guarantee facility under the InvestEU Fund is more efficient, as the InvestEU Fund will be based on a budgetary guarantee rather than a fully funded financial instrument. To this end, it will be stipulated in the Regulation that the budget allocated towards the SME guarantee under the COSME programme shall be made available to the guarantee fund linked to the InvestEU Fund on the condition that the implementation of an SME guarantee facility is focused on supporting higher risk SME financing transactions under the SME window of the InvestEU Fund.

4.1.Programme coordination and delivery

4.1.1.Coordination in the Commission

The day to day running of the Programme will require an Inter Service Group (ISG) within the Commission to ensure coordination between the services involved in running the specific activities. The ISG will consist of the DGs tasked with the implementation of the programme and administrative support will be provided by the lead DGs.

The ISG will develop the internal arrangements for the cross-cutting activities and support measures announced in the work programme, monitor relations with any relevant executive agency and will be consulted on the scope of the activities to be externalised. The ISG will be involved in budget appropriation and programme evaluation.

An additional option in implementing the Single Market Programme would be for the responsible Commission services to be assisted by a Common Support Centre similar to the one set up to assist in the day to day management of the Horizon 2020 Programme under the current Multiannual Financial Framework which provides a consistent application and interpretation of a single set of rules in Horizon 2020 across all components of this Framework Programme and a harmonised implementation of full grants cycle across all implementing bodies. This support however also creates rigidity in the implementation when based on a single set of rules which is appropriate for a very large scale of operations in administering grants which is not foreseen for the Single Market Programme. . Given the diversity of actions under the Single Market Programme, the use of a Common support Centre is therefore not foreseen for the Single Market Programme. It is considered that the ISG within the Commission will be sufficient to ensure proper coordination of actions.

Under the template put forward for sector programmes under the Multiannual Financial Framework post 2020, the funding rules applicable to the programme budget will closely follow the provisions of the new Financial Regulations. Where appropriate, the programme's ISG can be consulted or ad hoc cooperation can be established for the implementation of specific cross-cutting activities, such as rationalising some IT tools developed under the Single Market Programme or its predecessors.

4.2.Delegation to executive agencies

Delegation to an executive agency is primarily relevant for activities that are repetitive, non-political and benefits from economies of scale in their production. A good example is the delegation of management of grants awarded to a large number of recipients according to a set of common rules or the contracting out of media buying for communication campaigns. One or several existing executive agencies could be tasked to run specific grants or procurements meeting these criteria and develop the necessary expertise in the delegated task across several programmes. Other procurements could be delegated to executive agencies on the basis of a pre-existing specialisation (e.g. in the health and food safety domain).

Due to specialisation and standardisation of administrative activities such agencies are very cost efficient. Cost analysis has shown, for instance, that delegation of programme management to EASME is estimated to deliver savings of 26% or €104m over 2014-2024 relative to implementation by the Commission itself 80 .They also form a single recognizable counterpart to recipients of funding. This will allow Commission services to concentrate resources on developing and retaining expertise required for non-repetitive and policy making tasks.

4.2.1.Current delegation

Under the current multiannual financial framework the programmes included under the scope of the Single Market Programme have already delegated a number of such activities to executive agencies as summarised in table 4.1.

Table 4.1 – Existing delegation of activities for programmes under suggested scope for the Single Market programme

Under the current multiannual financial framework the European Commission has entrusted the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA) to implement activities for three programmes under the scope of the Single Market Programme: the Health, the Food Chain and Consumer programmes.

For the Health Programme this is mainly done through financing three types of different actions: grants for projects , grants for joint actions  with Member States and  operating grants . CHAFEA ensures a complete electronic lifecycle for grants from evaluation of proposals, to collection of deliverables and final reports. A good example is the "Better Training for Safer Food" (BTSF) initiative under the CFF for Food Chain Programme. The aim of BTSF is to organise a Community (EU) training strategy in the areas of food law, feed law, animal health and animal welfare rules, as well as plant health rules. While the Commission sets out policy objectives and the general strategy for BTSF, the Executive Agency puts into practice this initiative by managing all phases of the projects, from launch of calls for tender to evaluations of offers, award of contracts, and supervision of implementation. For the Consumer programme, CHAFEA implements grants and a part of the procurements in the programme. Certain specific procurements remain executed directly by the parent DG in case of highly sensitive files or where CHAFEA does not have the necessary technical expertise.

The COSME programme, on average, delegates around 110 million per year (90% of the budget for the non-financial instruments) to EASME. Half of this relates to the Enterprise Europe Network, the other half is constituted of a large number of smaller actions. Under the current multiannual financial framework, EASME has also partly implemented a small fragment of the Internal Market Governance tools (Your Europe Business) but with funding deriving from the COSME budget line.

4.2.2.Future delegation of activities under the Single Market Programme

From 2018, the portfolio of executive agencies is no longer limited by a strict interpretation of "programme" implementation as a result of the entry into force of the new Financial Regulation. This means that externalisation may now be considered for the implementation of certain tasks related to the management of individual projects and for the implementation of administrative expenditures. As such, externalisation can be extended to activities previously implemented by the Commission as long as it respects the requirements set out by Regulation 58/2003 for any delegation of tasks to Executive Agencies (prior cost benefit analysis, exclusion of any delegation of tasks involving discretionary powers, inclusion of the activity in the Establishment Act of the Executive Agency)..

In this context, the experience of executive agencies can be extended to other implementation tasks that are currently implemented within the Commission proper. Externalisation cannot be applied to all tasks. Some actions may be politically sensitive, or need a specific knowledge to be implemented most effectively, which would require in-house evaluation and award of individual contracts and funding to be performed by the Commission itself or some selected activities with a particularly close relation to policy making.

Without prejudging of the result of the cost benefit analysis that will be performed to analyse the opportunity of delegation to executive agencies for the next programming period 82 , the following elements can already be mentioned. Positive experience with the current delegations from the Health, Food chain, Consumer and COSME programmes means they should continue under the next multiannual financial framework. The current delegation of the activities for Your Europe Business might no longer be considered suitable for delegation to the executive agency as analysis has showed that the delegation created an extra layer of coordination that effective delivery can be better achieved by fully integrating delivery with the other Internal Market governance tools which are currently managed in-house.

As a part of the preparation of the impact assessment for the Single Market Programme, the services involved have performed a preliminary analysis and identified potential candidates for future delegation of activities to an executive agency.

As regards the delegation of the implementation of grants:

·The possible use of grants to incentivise uptake of digital interoperable assets from the current ISA2 programme.

·Operating and action grants without calls for proposals (under framework contracts) to European standardisation organisations.

·The use of grants to support joint enforcement actions, best practise development and capacity building in the area of market surveillance and product compliance.

As regards the delegation of the implementation of public procurement:

·Day to day management of the contract supporting Your Europe Advice (part of the Single Market Governance tools) 83 .

·Market studies, data gathering and analysis, product testing, communication actions, training programmes and material in the area of market surveillance and product compliance.

As regards the delegation of the implementation of other activities:

·Direct payment or reimbursement of travel and meeting costs linked to enforcement coordination meetings of market surveillance authorities, exchange of officials, peer review visits of market surveillance authorities.

·Direct payment or reimbursement of Member States' testing costs in the context of agreed priority actions of the EU Product Compliance Network.

·Management of joint procurement for EU Product Compliance Network (e.g. framework contracts open to COM/agency and authorities)

The potential for delegation in the next multiannual financial framework is described in table 4.2.

Table 4.2 – Potential for future delegation in the Single Market Programme

In a context of continuing existing delegations and as a result of the identification of the above potentials for new delegation, a political decision will be needed at the appropriate time as to how to organise the delegation of actions from the Single Market Programme. This choice will largely depend on the result of the Cost benefit Analysis.

5.How will performance be monitored and evaluated?

As the Single Market Programme is a merger of 15 new and existing programmes it covers a very large number of policy areas and consequently includes a large number of (sub)objectives and indicators. In as much as only a limited number of key performance indicators are possible, combining indicators to measure the overall performance of the programme covering many policy areas is not a viable monitoring strategy 85 .

To prepare the impact assessment a half day workshop was conducted between the Commission services involved in the programme and the JRC. As a result the involved services were able to design and select a limited number of highly aggregated Key Performance Indicators that would best reflect the overall performance in terms of both the content-specific (reflecting key components of the programme) and cross-cutting objectives for the Single Market Programme 86 . The chosen indicators are based on the learnings from evaluation which showed the need for reducing the total number of indicators and shifting the focus to only key indicators which are measuring performance rather than output and for which the sources of data should be clearly identified at the design stage.

In order to measure the achievement of the cross-cutting objectives for the new Single Market Programme the following design specific indicators will be monitored in-house:

There will be separate mid-term evaluations of the components of the Single Market Programme. Each evaluation will be content specific and focus on its detailed objectives. The findings will feed into the evaluation of the whole SMP, which will concentrate on design specific objectives (simplification, flexibility and synergies) and the key performance indicators specified in the legal base. In order to provide meaningful recommendations the mid-term evaluation should be conducted when SMP actions are likely to produce real output on the ground. Assuming that the next MFF has a duration of 7 years the mid-term evaluations should start during the 5th or 6th year of the programme implementation. The final evaluation should take place when all actions are executed and cleared.

The existing data sources seem sufficient for the monitoring of the proposed indicators.

Monitoring indicators presented above are not sufficient to provide an adequate evaluation of the effects of the whole programme. For this reason, it is foreseen to plan for mid-term and ex-post evaluations of specific SMP components with the relevant data collection. The detailed monitoring and evaluation arrangements for different SMP components are discussed in the respective programme-specific annexes. The detailed connection between all objectives and draft comprehensive list of all indicators is presented in Annex 19 and 20 respectively. Following experience with the current programmes, too many indicators can be difficult to monitor and not proportionate to objectives at hand. Therefore further work will be done to reduce and streamline the list proposed in the annex.

Annex 1: Procedural information

1.Lead DG(s), Decide Planning/CWP references

Lead Directorates-General (DGs)

This initiative is co-led by Directorate-Generals for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (GROW), Competition (COMP), Informatics (DIGIT), Eurostat (ESTAT), Financial stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (FISMA), Justice and Consumers (JUST), Health and Food Safety (SANTE) and, Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD).

Decide planning and Commission Work Programme references.

The Decide Consultation reference for this initiative is ISC/2018/03016. The MFF proposal was published in the Commission Work Programme 2018 93 .

2.Organisation and timing

The Inter-Service Steering Group for this initiative was chaired by the Secretariat-General. Besides lead DGs the following Directorates-General participated: the Legal Service (LS), Budget (BUDG), Communication Networks, Content and Technology (CNECT) and Joint Research Centre (JRC), Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (EMPL), Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN), Research and Innovation (RTD) and European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).

The following meetings took place:

·27 November 2017 – preparation of public consultations

·8 February 2018 – on lessons learnt and objectives

·16 March 2018 – on the final draft Impact Assessments

There was also a separate Inter-Service Steering Group Meeting related to COSME which took place on 22 February 2018. In addition, to services represented in the Single Market Programme, the following Directorates-General participated: Regional and Urban Policy (REGIO), Research and Innovation (RTD), Environment (ENV), Joint Research Centre (JRC), Climate action (CLIMA), Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN), Budget (BUDG), Trade (TRADE) Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (EMPL).

Besides the above, leading DGs met regularly to discuss and develop different parts of the Impact Assessment.

3.Consultation of the RSB

An informal upstream meeting was held with RSB representatives. During this discussion Board members provided early feedback and advice on the basis of an inception impact assessment. Board members' feedback did not prejudge in any way the subsequent formal deliberations of the RSB. The Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB) discussed the draft impact assessment on 18 April 2018 and issued a positive opinion on 20 April 2018. The Board recommended the following improvements:

4.Evidence, sources and quality

This impact assessment is based on midterm evaluations and experience of the individual programmes of the MFF 2014-2020 budget period. The list of programmes is presented in section 1.1 Scope and context. The common lessons learnt from the experience with the programmes are summarised in section 1.2. More detailed information is available in programme specific annexes.

This impact assessment was also supported by public consultations, which are summarised in Annex 2.

Annex 2: Stakeholder consultation

1.Introduction

This synopsis documents public consultations accompanying the preparation of the proposal to introduce the Single Market Programme 94 .

The public consultation on the proposal took place between 10 January 2018 and 9 March 2018.

The questionnaire covered areas of investment, research and innovation, SMEs and Single Market. The analysis below focuses on areas covered by the Single Market Programme: SMEs and Single Market.

The results of this consultation were used for the preparation of the proposal and accompanying impact assessment.

2.Results of the public consultations

The on-line public consultations for this initiative were announced on the Commission consultation page 95 , used EUSurvey as the consultation tool and lasted for 8 weeks 96 . The questionnaire was available in all EU languages. The questionnaire and replies are available on the abovementioned consultation page.

Responses to public consultation are voluntary and represent only views of the respondents. Consequently, they cannot be interpreted as representative in a statistical sense to the whole EU.

2.1.Description of respondents

Responses are classified based on self-identification by the respondent.

By the end of consultation period, 4052 replies arrived. This analysis however, will concentrate on around 28% of respondents (1122 replies) who chose “EU support to the Single Market” (307 replies) and/or “EU support for SME and entrepreneurship” (1034) as the topics of their replies 97 .

The replies came from all 28 EU Member States, from Norway and Iceland (EEA), Switzerland (EFTA) and 13 other countries. Around 60% of replies came from just six countries: Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, France and UK. (See Fig. A2.1)

A third of replies came from citizens (409), a third from companies (396), 16% from NGOs and academia (180), 8% from public authorities (89). There were 257 replies from individual companies (93% of which were SMEs 98 ) and 95 replies from business associations 99 . National public authorities from 14 EU Member States 100 and regional or local authorities from 13 Member States 101 participated in the consultations.

Around 230 organisations are registered as official lobbyists in the transparency register 102 . 

Fig. A2.1. Distribution of answers to public consultations by country and stakeholder type.

·28 EU MS, + EEA and EFTA ·National authorities from 14 MS ·Regional authorities from 13 MS ·257 firms, including 238 SMEs ·95 business associations ·90 NGOs

Note: Covers only those who chose “EU support to the Single Market” and/or “EU support for SME and entrepreneurship” topics *Other includes 17 answers from Norway, 14 from Switzerland, 3 from Iceland, Israel (7), Turkey (4), two answers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Moldova and Peru, one answer from Albania and Kosovo, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ecuador, Paraguay and USA

Among all the respondents, 362 had previous experience with EU Health Programme, followed by COSME (336), EU Food and Feed Programme (71), Digital Single Market support programme (62) and European statistical programme (51).

2.2.Analysis of responses

Respondents were asked to identify and assess the importance of the key challenges for the Commission spending programmes. Almost all participants (97%) considered at least one challenge covered by the Single Market Programme 103 as very or rather important.

The most important challenges were access to finance, especially for SMEs and digital transition of economy (82%), promotion of public health (79%) 104 , support to industrial development (78%), fair competition and safe food (75%).

Citizens and NGOs considered health and safe food as top priorities. SMEs rated as second industrial development and as fourth financial stability. For public authorities digitalisation of economy and industrial development were most important, as well as quality and digitization of public institutions.

All topics relevant to SMP score above 50% relevance in the groups interested in SMEs and Single Market (see Table A2.1.)

Subsequently respondents were asked to judge how successful current policies are in addressing these challenges. Generally, between 20 and 50% of respondents considered SMP related policies as fully or fairly well contributing to the challenges. Smooth circulation of goods both within EU and at EU borders was judged highest (around 50% of all replies by all stakeholder groups except public authorities who judged highest the support to capital flows), followed by support to industrial development (42%) and provision of EU statistics (40%). Support to capital flows and investments (39%) was fourth. Third of respondents judged the remaining polices as at least fairly well addressing the challenges. Only one in five respondents thought that EU policies help to improve quality of public institutions (See table A2.2).

On the other hand, respondents considered that policies to improve public institutions (including digitalisation)(12%), ensure correct application and enforcement of EU rules (11%) and fair competition or access to finance (10%) are not successful at all. Citizens and NGOs were most unsatisfied with policies towards correct application and enforcement of EU rules (14%), SMEs with access to finance (14%) and public authorities with the quality of institutions (18%). Policies towards smooth circulation of goods and support to industrial development received the least negative responses (4%).

Nevertheless around 75% of stakeholders considered that EU programmes and funds add more value than could have been done at national level. With only 1% saying that Member States would do better. These views were shared among all stakeholder groups 105 (see Table A2.3).

Too complex procedures leading to high administrative burden and delays were considered as the most important obstacles reducing benefits of EU programmes (around 75% of answers of all respondent types). To a lesser extent (50%-60%), no flexibility in case of unforeseen events or no synergies between programmes as well as difficulties in combining EU with other public or private funds or insufficient administrative capacity were cited. Followed by insufficient involvement of citizens and lack of communication featured in around 40% of relies.

On the other hand, lack of EU standards was seen as the least of a problem and was quoted by only around 20% of respondents (see table A2.4).

Stakeholders almost unanimously considered that changes to the future MFF should result in fewer, clearer and shorter rules (88% of answers), as well as better alignment between different funds (75%). Better feedback to applicants, stability between programming periods and user-friendly IT tools featured in third to fifth place (60% - 70%). Such ranking was similar to all respondents except for public authorities which considered stability between programming periods and user-friendly IT tools among the top three most desired improvements (see table A2.5). The last on the list of all respondents was increased reliance on national rules, supported by less than a quarter of SMEs, 30% of all and citizens and as much as 40% of public authorities.

3.Received position papers

Stakeholders replying to the consultation sent 157 position papers explaining further their views. The key messages of these papers are presented below.

In general, most of the participating stakeholders consider EU action as appropriate when two criteria are filled. On the one hand, they are now convinced that the EU should focus on added-value sectors and actions (This is something that came up a very high number of times. For example : IBEC, Confederation of Danish industry, Business Europe, Confederation of Finish industries, Emilia-Romagna Region, AECB Bulgaria… ). It seems that stakeholders now consider this criterion as crucial. On the other hand, EU actions are successful when they bring the EU closer to citizens.

Keeping in mind this and the specific objectives of the two policies assessed – SMEs / Single Market, one can sum up the contributions of stakeholders, in the following terms.

General remarks on funds

Regarding funds, several limits are very often raised. Those are mainly:

-unpredictability,

-complex rules

-lack of rationalisation with all other EU funds/ financial instruments with overlapping objectives especially in the context of their proliferation.

Therefore, there is a high demand for synergies and rationalisations of EU funds among themselves but also with national and local authorities (EUROCITIES, Osterreich, European Cyclist Federation, NECS TOUR, Emilia-Romagna Region, Flanders Investment and Trade…). One can also observe a strong call for simplification and a better balance predictability of means and flexibility to react to unforeseen events (AECB Bulgaria, Business Europe, RUP, Investitionsbank, and European Network of Credit Unions).

SMEs

The participating stakeholders unanimously praise EU programmes supporting SMEs, especially the COSME programme. Indeed, SMEs face specific and structural difficulties justifying a dedicated policy. They consider that this policy respects the added-value criterion and acknowledged their concrete results for both financial instruments and specific policies such as the EEN. They are all in favour of maintaining a SME policy in the next MFF and even endowing this policy with a higher budget (Business Europen, Wirtschaftskammer Osterreich, Confederation of Finnish industries and Flanders Investment and Trade insisting on the EEN, Association of German Guarantee Banks, TURBO). According to the Wirtschaftskammer Osterreich, the three priorities - access to finance, access to (export) markets, better competitive environment for entrepreneurship - of the programme should be maintained.

However, some limits have been identified.

(1) Nature of SMEs financial support: available types of financial instruments are still too restricted; modern financing should be used involving notably more private investment (Business Europe, EBAN, Start up Cyprus, Confederation of Danish industry, EARSC), or other kinds of alternative source such as the crowdfunding (EUROCITIES). This would allow more risky investments and a better access to finance for start-ups and scale ups (EBAN).

(2) Accompanying measures: support is considered by some stakeholders as too restricted in terms of timing; according to them, concrete examples tend to prove that helping SMEs/ start-ups for 2 to 3 years and not only 1 year, is more efficient. In the case of the Loan Guarantee Facility (LGF), shifting from 10 to 15 years maximum for loan guarantees would open LGF to more SMEs because many investments need a longer-term visibility.

(3) Insufficient communication: for some of the contributing stakeholders information about access to funds and/or support (EEN) is not sufficient, some did not even know about all the existing programmes. It is in particular the case for the outermost regions, which face multiple structural difficulties – lower attractiveness of the markets, low level of training and information, low visibility of the EEN network. However, it is also the case for some regions of continental Europe and for some specific sectors (Tourism for European Cyclist Federation and NECS for example Tour) according to the responses. Therefore, respondents proposed to increase the general awareness of this programme. In that regard they suggested a great number of different options, including: creation of a network of local SME envoys, involving cities in the EEN because they know best which companies could need help, European start up cities programme that will promote best practice exchange on how cities can support start-ups, creating local information desks or contact points, offering technical guidance to SMEs to access public procurement, communication plan focusing on stories of successful SMEs which were supported by COSME in order to inspire potential entrepreneurs, translation of all COSME administrative documents in every European language.

(4) Include more types of SMEs in more sectors: This item covers different situations. First is the issue of the criteria for choosing SMEs eligible for support. According to AECB Bulgaria, as the European support is targeted at SMEs and start-ups boosting research and innovation, only a small proportion of SMEs can benefit. They therefore suggest more diversified instruments addressing all types of enterprises. In addition, different respondents ask for improving the integration of SMEs in specific sector (such as space for EARSC) or in specific context (collaborative projects according to the Ile de France region). Finally, the Women Entrepreneurship platform recommends adapting SMEs policy rules to the specific issue of gender, by promoting female entrepreneurship, creating adequate indicators and providing sufficient resources.

(4) Lack of assessment. According to some stakeholders, SMEs actions should be further assessed with appropriate indicators. Some of them ask for integrating this criterion into the European Semester (AECB Bulgaria)

Single Market

Single Market is considered the best illustration of EU added value action, as it is a public good delivering real and tangible benefits (Confederation of Danish Industry/ Business Europe). However, the Single Market is a never-fully-achieved project as new barriers continuously appear. Therefore, some respondents ask for further standardization (EAPFP), and for strengthened market surveillance with sufficient budget allocation (Business Europe). For the next MFF, and also in order to ensure a proper functioning of the Single Market, the Confederation of Danish industry suggests that intra EU infrastructure should be the top priority as this enables a better cross-border connectivity (energy, transport, data).

Regarding digital transition, relevant stakeholders praise the perspective of a genuine digital single market and they feel the need for trans-European digital services

Health

More than half of the replies to the open consultation came from stakeholder groups consisting of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) active at EU-level in the field of public health (e.g. the European Patient Forum – EPF, the European Public Health Alliance – EPHA, EuroHealthNet, European Innovation Parthership on Active and Healthy Ageing – EIP-AHA, Social Impact of Pain – SIP, Rare Disease Europe – EURORDIS,… ). The remaining replies were received by EU-wide or national organisations of health professionals (e.g. The Standing Committee of European Doctors, the European Network of Medical Residents in Public Health – EUR NET MRPH, Malta Dental Technologists Association,…), which were complemented by contributions from two national trade associations of the healthcare industry (Med Tech Europe and the German Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry – BPI).

Most respondents agree that there is a need for an ambitious health agenda beyond 2020 with a stand-alone PH programme, and would welcome additional financing which would be justified by the return on investment and economy of scales. They also consider that the EU should continue to pursue the achievement of its Treaty objectives (Art 168 TEU) and SDGs with a strong programme for public health complemented by other financial instruments. Some respondents point to the fact that while citizens expect the EU to do more on health this is not reflected in the Commission Communication for the next MFF.

Respondents also consider that health is above all a public good, a fundamental right and a major European value which should remain at the core of EU policy making; that Internal Market and competitiveness considerations should not take precedence over health considerations; that social values should not be subjugated to "marketization", and that merging some EU programmes to improve cost-efficiency and effectiveness of EU level actions should always consider the health and social equity impact prior to cost-saving.

As to "how" the Treaty's objectives should be pursued, respondents consider that current public health issues could only be effectively dealt with through collaboration at EU level; that there is an obvious added value of EU action to address challenges such as tackling health threats, health inequalities, migration, ageing population, patient safety, high quality health care, non-communicable diseases (incl. major risk factors such as obesity), infectious diseases and AMR.

The consultation results also point to the EU's crucial role in addressing the transformative developments of multiple emerging technologies on populations and societies across Europe, including the transformation of health systems, data gathering and exchanges, and EU research programmes

Achievements of EU action in the field of fight against cross border threats, quality and safety of medicines, rare diseases and cooperation on HTA were praised by respondents and EU initiatives on vaccines, tobacco control and ERNS welcome. Some respondents indicated the need to do more to improve transparency in the pharmaceutical sector and to develop patient-centred initiatives, and to foster innovation and digital health.

Food Chain

Core needs expressed in the context of the open public consultation focused on the two major issues below:

·Consumers' interests:

oThe agri-food sector to become consumer centric and win back the consumers' trust.

oConsumers’ dietary needs and food preferences related to lifestyle and life stage to be focused on for healthy and sustainable nutrition.

oImportance of food information to prevent major threats such as obesity, diabetes, AMR.

oPrevention of food frauds.

oExchange of best practices among Member States.

·Sustainability of farming and food production and distribution:

oIncreased competitiveness of the sector.

oPrevention of food waste.

oCircularity.

oDigitalisation.

oInnovation.

oAnimal welfare.

oResource efficiency to ensure adequate response to threats like climate change and land erosion.

There is a strong support that the EU should play a leading role at global level to drive a change.

In view of the next MFF, the idea of public-private partnership to join and combine efforts in view of best addressing the issues above was put forward. More specifically:

1.    One respondent invited the European Commission and Member States to support an integrated programme coordinating both long-term research and short-term implementation, education, technology transfer and dissemination - thus contributing to achieving the SDGs and the Paris Agreement - through a comprehensive programme in FP9, targeting technological solutions in food security, sustainable farming, food safety and healthy nutrition. It stressed the need for this action to be inclusive, gathering all the necessary actors from all relevant sectors, from start-ups and SMEs to large multinationals, from industry to academia, from farmers and manufacturers to consumers and societal organizations, from east to west, north to south.

2.    A second respondent proposed a pan-European approach in which the major stakeholders, including farmers, industry, academia, government, investors and societal and consumer organisations join forces in a cooperative effort to find the solutions to the challenges of providing nutrient security to a growing world population in a circular and resource-efficient way. This could take the form of an Agri-Food Joint Undertaking combining private research investments and public funds from the next Framework Programme.

4.How the results of consultations were used

The results of the consultation were used in writing the SMP impact assessment and programme specific annexes. They were used to underpin lessons learnt from the current programmes as well as the need for synergies, simplifications and flexibility of the new one.

Annex 3: Evaluation results

The key cross cutting lessons learned from the evaluations of different programme components are presented in section 1.2 of the impact assessment report.

The detailed findings of different programme components are provided in section 1.2 of programme specific annexes (annex 4 to annex 18).

Annex 4: Programme specific annex on An Ambitious Competition policy for a stronger Union in the digital age ('THE COMPETITION PROGRAMME')

1. INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL AND LEGAL CONTEXT

1.1 Scope and context

1.1.1 Legal and political context

EU competition law has an essential role to play in ensuring the proper functioning of the EU's the Internal Market, as is recognised explicitly in the Treaties on the EU and on the Functioning of the EU. Under Article 3(3) TEU, the Union shall establish an internal market. Protocol No 27 to both the TEU/TFEU on the Internal Market and Competition states that "the internal market as set out in Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union includes a system ensuring that competition is not distorted" 106 . Indeed, EU competition policy has constituted a sine qua non for the founding and development of the internal market since its inception in 1958. 107

1.1.2 Broad description of the Competition programme

The broad scope of the Competition Programme corresponds to the main challenges of the Single Market Programme (SMP) 108 (for more detail on the challenges in the competition field, the eligible actions and specific objectives see sections 2-4 below):

1.1.3 Reflection paper on the future of EU finances

EU value added is a key principle that should drive the design of the next MFF 109 EU competition policy, reinforced by the Competition Programme, would generate considerable added value in support of the Single Mmarket (see section 3.3 below).

1.1.4 Relevant European Parliament resolutions and European Council conclusions

The multiple linkages between competition policy and the internal market run like a red thread through the European Parliament Resolution of 14 February 2017 on the annual report on EU competition policy 110 . The Resolution also makes numerous statements on the external dimension of the internal market and competition policy 111 .  The Resolution specifically called on "the Commission to reallocate sufficient financial and human resources to DG Competition" and requested "that the Commission have sufficient technically skilled engineers available when investigating high-tech companies".

In its conclusions of 21 March 2014, the European Council welcomed the Commission's plans to modernise the State aid rules, in particular the extension of the scope of the General Block Exemption Regulation (meanwhile implemented), while stressing the need for maintaining a level playing field among the Member States. In its conclusions on the Single Market of 23 June 2017, the European Council stressed that "timely implementation and better enforcement of existing legislation are also key to reaping the benefits of Europe's Single Market".

1.1. Lessons learnt from previous programmes

1.2.1 Lessons learnt

As the Competition programme is a new programme, there is by definition no evaluation of previous programmes. Nevertheless, evaluations have been carried out of key parts and aspects of EU competition policy.

Notably, studies have shown the macroeconomic impacts of EU competition enforcement to be significant. For example, a paper published in 2015 ("Distributional macroeconomic effects of EU competition policy – A general equilibrium analysis") by DG COMP and DG ECFIN staff 112 , found that EU competition policy enforcement in the cartel and merger areas supported growth (see impact in graph below (left)), employment, while reducing inequalities between rich and poor households. The magnitude of the inclusive impact on growth and employment could be stressed. Indeed, the impact of the enforcement action was similar to that estimated for the Services Directive 113 . The OECD reached similar conclusions in 2014, finding robust evidence in support of the relationships set out in the graph below (right) 114 .

In terms of leverage and EU value added, the internal market – the EU's principal asset – has so far generated enormous benefits and value added for EU citizens and businesses compared to limited budgetary expenditure. As appears from the foregoing, the same holds true for EU competition policy which is essential to deliver the internal market on the ground. EU competition policy 115 also collaterally impacts the budget through fines in cartel and antitrust decisions (over the last 10 years, annual revenues have averaged roughly EUR 1.7 billion, with annual amounts varying between EUR 0.4 billion and EUR 4.2 billion) 116 .

Other more specific and recent evaluations and studies have included among other things enforcement in the energy (antitrust), telecoms (mergers), the impact on competition of certain aid schemes under Member State control (State aid) and the passing-on of overcharges (cartels) 117 . The issues and findings covered are coherent with the Internal Market (and the envisaged Single Market Programme), as they are aimed at providing a better understanding of various aspects of the Internal Market relevant to the enforcement and formulation of competition law and guidance (see 1.1. above). A special case concerns the training of national judges in EU competition law (see second box below) 118 .

Major lessons in terms of identifying new and growing challenges have also been learnt in the day-to-day enforcement of EU competition policy. These challenges and the risks associated with not addressing them will be set out in more detail under section 2.1 below which "should identify and explain the main challenges and problems to be addressed by the future programmes". These include a more complex and demanding IT and data driven world (increasingly sophisticated IT tools used by firms, continuous increase in the volume of electronic communications and the use of artificial intelligence, big data and algorithms) as well as the need for a wider and deeper engagement with national authorities and courts (in part due to recent and impending legislative reforms). Tackling these challenges would be coherent with the envisaged Single Market Programme. In the absence of a support programme addressing those challenges, the enforcement of all branches of EU competition policy would gradually become less effective, less timely and less relevant to rapidly evolving market developments, thereby – by extension – weakening the internal market.

1.2.2 Key messages from stakeholders

Findings from a number of surveys demonstrate that there is scope for reaching out to a wider group of stakeholders impacted by EU competition policy. Indeed, Eurobarometer Citizen Surveys in 2010 and 2014 showed a lack of awareness of where to turn to in case of competition problems such as higher prices, fewer products, reduced supplier choice or lower quality. In addition, a 2016 Eurobarometer survey showed only limited knowledge and awareness of issues related to State aid transparency 119 . In 2016, the Court of Auditors also pointed to the need to increase awareness of and ensure more effective compliance with State aid rules 120 . Such action would be coherent with the first broad Challenge of the Single Market Programme ("Empowering citizens, consumers and businesses ).

Moreover, the public consultation on the Multiannual Financial Framework took place between 10 January 2018 and 9 March 2018. The questionnaire covered areas of investment, research and innovation, SMEs and Single Market. In total the Commission received 4052 replies. Around 28% of respondents (1122 replies) chose “EU support to the Single Market” (307 replies) and/or “EU support for SME and entrepreneurship” (1034) as the topics of their replies. There is a wide geographical coverage of responses. The replies came from all 28 EU Member States, from Norway and Iceland (EEA), Switzerland (EFTA) and 13 other countries.

Among challenges relevant to the Single Market Programme the most important were access to finance, especially for SMEs and digital transition of economy (82%), promotion of public health (79%), support to industrial development (78%) and fair competition and safe food (75%) (see table below).

2. THE OBJECTIVES

2.1 Challenges for the programmes of the next MFF

2.1.1 Baseline scenario: no spending programme

There is currently no spending operational programme supporting EU competition policy. The baseline scenario is thus a zero dedicated budget in the area of EU competition policy.

2.1.2 Expected impacts with an unchanged policy (Baseline scenario)

With an unchanged policy, i.e. in the absence of an adequate support programme in the next MFF period, EU competition policy would not maintain its capacity to address a number of IT and data driven transformational challenges affecting virtually the entire economy. EU competition enforcers – including the Commission - are confronted with increasingly sophisticated and numerous IT tools used by economic operators; an exponential increase in electronic communications; a rapidly growing use of algorithms, Big Data, Big Analytics and artificial intelligence (AI 121 ); increasing difficulties in detecting infringements (as digital tools may help conceal anticompetitive conduct) and collecting evidence and managing case files; a growing need to procure data from independent third parties; a rising need to have recourse to tailor-made tools for investigations (such as state of the art software and hardware for in-depth analysis of documents and datasets); as well as tools for economic simulations and knowledge management (see 2.1.3).

Case handlers and teams across all branches of EU competition law would benefit significantly from common, faster, more powerful and efficient case management and document systems (see box on success stories in section 1 above). Likewise, they would potentially benefit considerably from AI in connection with (i) the classification and review 122 of documents; ii) investigative and data analysis; iii) the assessment and drafting of decisions as well as iv) reviews of replies to large information requests and sector enquiries 123 .

Those needs in terms of technology and the need for skilled operators are particularly acute against a background of exponentially growing electronic casefile sizes (requiring ever larger amounts of storage and processing capacity) 124 coupled with the increasing complexity of competition cases (see section 2.1.3 below) 125 .

State-of-the art IT tools (including skilled operators) would also help tackle the mounting administrative burden associated with legal requirements to ensure due process in competition cases (eg access to file and the obligation for the Commission to make a full record of parties' statements) 126 .

Many competition decisions are appealed to the General Court which verifies that the Commission has accurately stated the facts in the contested decisions 127 . Thus, ensuring the integrity of digital evidence brought before the EU Courts is another challenge 128 . The Commission's data strategy recognises that it "must continue to ensure full compliance with legal and other confidentiality considerations and to guarantee a high level of security for sensitive information" 129 .

Without access to state-of-the-art solutions and equipment (including artificial intelligence) to perform activities such as data analysis and forensic IT, EU competition enforcement would gradually become slower and less effective, less efficient and less relevant; under the Baseline scenario, the Commission's currently high success rate before the EU Courts would be put in jeopardy; the Commission would be less able to monitor market developments; in turn, the deterrent effect of EU competition policy would likely diminish, weakening and fragmenting the internal market. In the State aid field, suboptimal enforcement would involve State aid being granted later rather than sooner or, in the case of eg high-risk investments in sectors with fast innovation cycles, not granted at all 130 , affecting the competitiveness and costs of businesses operating in the internal market 131 . Under the Baseline scenario merger control could gradually become less effective and targeted resulting in errors 132 . A further risk is that the Commission can be exposed to significant damages actions in so far as its decisions are annulled and are shown to have caused unjustified harm to firms or other parties.

In antitrust and cartels, the baseline scenario could mean that many infringements will go undetected or escape with impunity, diminishing general deterrence. By way of illustration, cartel investigations have become almost entirely digital, requiring the use of state-of-the-art IT forensic tools (see 2.1.3 below). The magnitude of the potential impact of less effective cartel enforcement (as well as for mergers), in the absence of state-of-the-art tools, in terms of customer savings appears from the graph below (for potential macroeconomic impacts see the graph at 1.2.1 above).

Investing in AI will therefore be of strategic importance if the Commission is to keep and increase its investigative capacity in competition enforcement in the broader context of constrained staff and budget resources in the Commission, as well as to keep up with other leading international law enforcement authorities and private law firms that are investing in AI (for more detail see 2.1.3 below).

Previous and upcoming legislative and regulatory reforms – in particular in the State aid, antitrust and cartel areas - require that EU competition rules are properly understood, interpreted and enforced at national and sub-national levels. Without being able to engage more deeply and widely in a secure manner with national authorities and courts, the enforcement of EU competition policy – and the internal market - would be further fragmented. Divergences in the way national authorities apply EU competition rules to economic operators damage the internal market, not least from the point of view of Member States and businesses as well as potential foreign investors. Such cooperation with national authorities – especially in the framework of the European Competition Network and the multilateral and bilateral State aid Partnerships – specifically require upgraded and secure IT solutions allowing for the exchange of confidential documents but also, which is equally important, frequent face-to-face meetings with national authorities and national courts for the purposes of training, peer review and the exchange of best practices and information. This is particularly so given that 85% of EU cartel and antitrust decisions have been adopted by national competition authorities since 2004 and that 97% of newly implemented State aid measures are not notified to the Commission as a result of the State Aid Modernisation reforms 2012-2014 (see 2.1.3 below).

It will also be increasingly difficult, under the Baseline scenario, for the Commission to continue to claim global intellectual leadership as the leading competition enforcer 133 in particular in the debate on the role of antitrust in the digital age 134 .

2.1.3 Challenges that need to be addressed by the Competition programme

In the following challenges specific to the four areas of the Competition Programme are discussed. Ensuring state-of-the-art EU level enforcement and policy guidance, boosting partnerships with national and third country authorities as well as widening stakeholder outreach under the Competition programme would generate benefits in terms of performance, flexibility, synergies, coherence and simplification within the Commission's competition DG, vis-à-vis other Single Market Programme services 135 and in relation to Member State authorities and courts.

2.1.3.1 Challenges for EU level antitrust and cartel enforcement and policy guidance

Antitrust case files are becoming ever more challenging to manage. The file of a recent antitrust case amounted to more than 600,000 pages. In the Google comparison shopping case, the evidence on the Commission's file included inter alia 5.2 Terabytes of search results from Google (one Terabyte being equal to 85,899,345 pages) 136 . The Google case also illustrates that significant expenditure on expertise may also have to be incurred post-decision to assist the Commission in monitoring the implementation of decisions 137 . Needs for such expertise is likely grow in step with the increasing size and complexity of cases, not least considering that antitrust remedies increasingly require changes in companies' algorithms and data practices and the consequent monitoring of the effects of these changes.

In the detection of antitrust and cartel infringements – against an evolving technological landscape - digital investigations have become a sine qua non for modern competition authorities 138 ; indeed, antitrust and cartel investigations are today virtually digital, requiring the application of AI both in the fact-finding phase and in conducting data analysis of large datasets through using machine learning, link analysis 139 , lexical analysis 140 , entity-relationship modelling 141 , text clustering 142 and targeted visualization analysis 143 ; such methodologies require a combination of specialised hardware and software as well as investments in highly trained operators.

Forensic IT capacity will be increasingly crucial in gathering potential evidence during on the spot inspections whilst respecting the integrity of the inspected undertakings’ systems and data (eg in retrieving deleted emails) as well as ensuring the integrity of the evidence. Proof of anticompetitive conduct is by now predominantly to be found in electronic format and kept in places and maintained in a form which may facilitate that the proof is concealed, withheld or destroyed. Effective action in this area requires state-of-the-art hardware and software which need to be continuously maintained, enhanced and upgraded as well as investments in highly trained operators.

Beyond inspections, the detection of cases or potential cases in the future is expected to require a thorough technical and economic understanding of companies' behaviour with regard to data and algorithms and other emerging technologies such as the internet of things and blockchain technology.

At the same time, the roll-out of artificial intelligence in the legal sector ('legal tech') is accelerating; investments in start-ups since the financial crisis have increased rapidly 144 . Law firms are already using artificial intelligence for purposes such as due diligence and review of contracts 145 . An often cited author as regards the impact of AI on the legal profession predicts that "The 2020s will be the decade of disruption" (overlapping with the next MFF period); AI applications have also emerged in the area of competition law 146 . A current focus is on applications able to infer meanings from data, answer natural language legal research questions as well as predict outcomes 147 .

Another growing antitrust and cartel related challenge concerns the risks of anticompetitive conduct including collusion in the form of price coordination by competitors through algorithms 148 ; or, in any case, enhanced risks of tacit collusion (currently not caught by antitrust and cartel rules) resulting in wealth transfers from customers 149 . A recent OECD paper draws attention to the need to carefully examine these new evolving markets (eg to consider possible changes in competition law as regards tacit collusion) 150 ; according to the OECD "the economics of data favours market concentration and dominance" 151 .

2.1.3.2 Challenges for EU level merger control and guidance

Over the past four years, the number of merger notifications has increased by close to 40% (from 277 in 2013 to 380 in 2017), accompanied by a rise in transaction values. Some economic sectors and industries have become increasingly consolidated. These trends are compounded by ever more voluminous case files, a development which is projected to persist into the future. Case files in some complex investigations can reach up to hundreds of thousands of documents. Manifestly, sophisticated IT tools need to be deployed to review and assess such quantities of documents filed by the merger parties.

Artificial intelligence tools will likely become crucial in the process of ensuring efficient and exhaustive discovery as well as and treatment of large bodies of evidence, both of a qualitative and a quantitative nature, and notably in the assessment of internal documents of the notifying parties and third parties as well as the handling and processing of large quantitative datasets (including econometric modelling). This is particularly so given the short legal deadlines of the EU Merger Regulation (one month since notification in normal cases, five months in case of in-depth, phase II investigations). Clearly, the process of review and assessment of evidence will – as in the case of antitrust and cartels - increasingly need to be supported and augmented by appropriate methodologies as described above in relation to antitrust and cartels.

Since the introduction of a legal test more firmly grounded on an effects-based approach in the reform of the Merger Regulation in 2004, the complexity of merger assessment has also increased considerably. Two sources of evidence have by now become an integral part of complex merger assessments: quantitative data and internal documents. The increasing complexity of merger cases - both in terms of the concerns investigated and the remedies considered - is reflected in rising legal and consultancy bills 152 . In turn, certain of those developments oblige the Commission to rely to a greater extent on external technical expertise, market information and studies 153 (which given the short merger deadlines typically cannot be procured through a normal tender). But obtaining external expertise can also generate significant synergies and positive spillovers 154 . Similarly, the Commission experience from recent merger cases has shown that information from commercial information providers' proprietary databases (eg sector-specific data) may be required at short notice.

2.1.3.3 Challenges for EU State aid control and guidance

While State aid control (Articles 107-108 TFEU) is an exclusive power of the Commission, Member States play a crucial role in ensuring effective compliance on the ground 155 . This role has become even more important after the State Aid Modernisation (SAM) concluded in 2014, which led to a widening of the scope of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER). As a result, 97% of all new aid measures today are being implemented without prior Commission prior approval, a dramatic increase compared to the pre-SAM era 156 . The reform will only be completely successful if Member States implement such aid measures in full compliance with State aid rules. To address this challenge, the Commission must intensify cooperation with the Member States and ensure full State aid transparency, allowing interested stakeholders (the Commission, competitors and the wider public) to verify the conformity of the aid with the rules 157 . That is why the Commission has established bilateral and multilateral Partnerships with the Member States (see below under 'Boosting internal partnerships'). Also, to assist Member States in complying with the transparency requirements, the Commission has developed the Transparency Award Module (TAM).

The expiry of numerous hard and soft law instruments forming part of SAM in the coming years gives rise to significant additional challenges. As a key input for the post-SAM related evaluation work ahead, the Commission will rely on evaluations to be made by the Member States on the direct and indirect effects of large (above EUR 150 million) aid schemes which will be received in the next few years (the process having started by end-2017). To this end, the Commission will be required to contract additional technical expertise. Meanwhile, the Member States are requesting related assistance and training from the Commission. At the time of writing, the Commission had already approved 37 evaluation plans covering 13 Member States, with a total annual budget of EUR 48 billion (with additional plans in the pipeline) 158 , corresponding to about 45% of total State aid annual spending in the EU. A trend towards larger schemes points towards a potential rise in the number of such evaluations. If the Commission were not able to properly analyse the Member States' evaluations as they are delivered, adverse effects on the internal market could follow 159 .

Like antitrust, cartel and merger enforcement, State aid control needs more sophisticated IT-tools as well as AI in order to analyse data, evidence and the lawfulness of aid already granted and also to detect the presence of aid in public interventions and anticipate developments in the economic nature of public activities and services. The relevant challenges include inter alia:

•    Analysis of files: There is currently no IT-tool at hand to search data across individual cases for purposes of comparison; nor is there any AI-driven analytical tool that would detect certain patterns in the Member State’s approach to a public financing in similar cases, predict future trends or point to relevant cases and jurisprudence 160 .

•    Monitoring of compliance with the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER): The Commission has so far monitored compliance with the GBER ex-post without IT tools. Given resource constraints, this exercise can only cover a small fraction of block-exempted aid measures. AI could support monitoring by detecting deviations between the GBER’s provisions and national aid schemes, as well as between individual aid awarded under a scheme on the one hand and the GBER and the scheme’s provisions on the other hand.

•    Conformity of public commercial economic operations with the ‘Market Economy Operator Principle’: Where the State provides its resources on market conditions, EU State aid rules do not apply. AI could be used to compare market operator behaviour in similar large projects 161 .

•    Existence of a market; question of the economic nature of public activities and services: EU State aid rules only apply if public funding is for activities in a market environment. Pursuant to Court jurisprudence, the question whether a market exists for public services may depend on the way those services are organised in the Member State concerned. That situation is not static and to a large extent dependent on political choices or economic developments. AI may help detect regulatory and economic developments in public services 162 .

•    The material selectivity of public funding: One constitutive element of State aid is the selectivity of a public measure, ie that it only favours certain undertakings and not others who are in the same factual and legal situation as the beneficiary/ies of the measure. This also applies to fiscal measures. State aid may be at hand in case a fiscal measure deviates from the reference system and its intrinsic objectives in the Member State concerned. AI tools could help in assessing the intrinsic objective of complex tax measures, detect deviations from these objectives in individual cases and also identify amendments to the reference system over time.

2.1.3.4 Boosting internal partnerships: challenges for European Competition Network

Since 2004, the antitrust and cartel rules (enforcement of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU) are enforced by the national competition authorities (NCAs) of the Member States in addition to the Commission. Together they make up the European Competition Network (ECN). Ensuring undistorted competition within the internal market depends significantly on the national competition authorities. For this model to work it is crucial that the Commission takes an active role in ensuring coherence and effectiveness of the application of the EU rules by NCAs. To that end, the Commission has set up and is coordinating horizontal working groups and sector-specific subgroups within the ECN 163 . Frequent and confidential meetings with the NCAs in these fora are required to promote a common competition culture and reduce inherent risks of divergent outcomes in the internal market due to incoherent enforcement. The continued proper functioning of the ECN also requires a secure, fully operational and interoperable IT infrastructure allowing for the exchange of confidential documents 164 in addition to meetings in person 165 .

These two strands of the ECN need reinforcement in view of two factors. First, the proposal for a Directive to empower the national authorities to be more effective enforcers (ECN+) – expected to be adopted in 2018 - is very likely to translate into more enforcement of the EU competition rules, reinforcing the need for close coordination and cooperation in the ECN 166 . Second, the digital transformation of markets and operators and the challenges this generates for the application of EU competition rules policy as described above are equally applicable to the ECN. Increasingly complex cases will intensify the need for early and in-depth coordination, as well as more policy meetings to agree on new methods and tools to tackle novel anticompetitive practices across the internal market. The digitisation across sectors means that businesses increasingly operate beyond national borders which in turn increases the need to coordinate and align national and EU investigations within the ECN.

The EU antitrust and cartel rules – Articles 101 and 102 TFEU - are enforced not only by the European Commission and NCAs (public enforcement), but also by national courts 167 .

To ensure a coherent application of EU antitrust and cartel rules by national courts on the ground, the Commission operates a grants programme dedicated to the training of national judges in EU competition law and judicial cooperation between national judges 168 169 . It also funds regular meetings of the association of European Competition Law Judges, AECLJ, a group of supreme and appellate court judges who hear cases in their courts concerning the application of European competition law. All these measures promote knowledge and understanding of competition policy and law issues throughout the respective judiciaries in order to avoid divergent application of EU law in different Member States.

The need for the Commission to provide support to national courts and to train judges is very likely to escalate as a result of the following developments: first, increased enforcement by the NCAs as a result of powers that will be bestowed through ECN+ (and, thus, increased judicial review of NCA decisions); second, the implementation of the recent Directive 2014/104/EU on antitrust damages actions (Damages Directive), which makes it much easier for citizens and businesses to bring actions for damages before national courts for EU antitrust infringements. 170 Significant growth in new private enforcement cases across the internal market is expected, requiring the Commission to step up its engagement with national courts and its training of national judges to ensure a coherent application of EU law. 171

2.1.3.5 Boosting internal partnerships: challenges for merger control

The EU merger regime is based on a clear division of competences between the Commission and the national competition authorities, which act as partners in ensuring consistent, efficient and effective merger control throughout the EU; for example, in connection with the referral mechanisms which give the necessary flexibility to reallocate cases. Cooperation aimed at further exchange of best practices and convergence takes place within the EU Merger Working Group since January 2010, comprising the Commission and the national competition authorities. There is a need to further strengthen cooperation and convergence through the exchange of best practices and knowledge between the national competition authorities, building on the Best Practices on cooperation between EU National Competition Authorities in Merger Review which were adopted as a result of the work of the EU Merger Working Group in 2011.

2.1.3.6 Boosting internal partnerships: challenges for State aid control

A key challenge in the State aid area will be to deepen and widen the Multilateral Partnership with the Member States at all levels - the Working Group on the Implementation of the State Aid Modernisation (SAM-Working Group), the High Level Forum and thematic working groups - in order that State Aid Modernisation (SAM) can maximise its contribution to the internal market. Likewise, the Bilateral Partnerships with Member States also need to be deepened and extended. That bilateral engagement could take the form of country visits, setting up coordination and follow-up processes that facilitateinformal exchanges and are thus complementary to formal State aid procedures, as well as training and other support to Member State authorities at all levels (including regional and local authorities as well as courts). A main challenge will be to engage in reflections with Member States on how to promote structures and procedures to enhance ex ante compliance and carry out effective ex post controls at national level.

A particular challenge will be to assist the Member States (e.g. through workshops) in connection with the Member States' evaluations of large aid schemes referred to above. Successful experiences and best practices from Member States should be shared and used to design future aid measures more effectively. Further development of IT tools will be needed (e.g. the Transparency Award Module platform 172 ensuring greater transparency of aid to individual beneficiaries as required by SAM as well as the SANI tool aimed at speeding up the treatment of State aid notifications).

2.1.3.7 Challenges in reinforcing and extending external partnerships

EU competition policy has a direct role in protecting the internal market against anticompetitive conduct and activities, including when emanating from abroad. The EU Courts have ruled that the Commission has an extraterritorial jurisdiction to enforce the EU antitrust, cartel and merger rules to the extent that an anticompetitive conduct is implemented in or has effect in the internal market 173 .

The Commission thus has a strong interest in engaging closely with third country authorities and in particular competition authorities, with a view to promoting worldwide convergence of competition rules, while cooperating closely in individual cases 174 . Multilaterally, the International Competition Network, comprising some 130 authorities, serves as the main forum for promoting convergence. The Commission has also signed different forms of cooperation agreements with several of its major trading partners and neighbours (such as US, Canada, China, India, Brazil and Switzerland). The challenges in ensuring effective cooperation with third country competition authorities are likely to grow in the coming decade; in the period of 2014-2015 in 52 % competition decisions adopted by the European Commission there was some form of cooperation with the competition authority of a third country; in cartel investigations cooperation took place in 69 % of all cases. A particular focus for future cooperation could be emerging economic blocs such as ASEAN and MERCOSUR which face similar competition challenges as the EU during its early years and decades.

So far cooperation has mainly concerned antitrust, cartels and mergers but recently subsidies have become a particular focus of attention and debate 175 . Decisions by third countries to grant a subsidy to a company that operates globally may affect competition in the internal market. In the negotiations of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), which include competition and State aid provisions, the Commission aims in particular to include strong commitments on subsidies, beyond what exists in WTO, extending transparency to subsidies to services, broader consultation possibilities and conditioning the most distortive subsidies. In June 2017 the Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China aimed at dialogue on State aid control and State intervention in the economy 176 . There is considerable scope for investing more in such activities, not only in terms of direct face-to-face engagement with third country authorities but also as regards the gathering of intelligence, for example mapping the use and extent of subsidies in key third countries (including at sub-federal level which often are not identified under current disciplines). The Commission is also addressing subsidies in the multilateral context, such as in WTO and OECD. Several precedents under MFF 2014-2020 exist of cooperation with third countries within mainly internal market orientated programmes 177 .

2.1.3.8 Challenges in achieving wider stakeholders outreach

Surveys carried out in 2010, 2014 and 2016 demonstrate the need for wider stakeholder outreach, not least as regards State aid (see 1.2.2 above). Raising awareness among a wider group of citizens and businesses affected by EU competition rules (beyond those mostly concerned such as legal and economic advisers specialised in competition law) would increase the effectiveness of competition law through information on types of behaviour which are not allowed under EU competition rules ('prevention is better than cure') 178 ; the effectiveness of EU competition rules would also be served by apprising citizens and businesses of their legal rights under those rules (eg the right to redress and compensation if harmed by others' anti-competitive behaviour). Such awareness-raising events and activities could benefit from synergies with other activities under the Single Market Programme. More broadly, the contribution of EU competition policy to a fairer society and economy, ensuring equality of opportunity, could be conveyed under a Competition programme within the Single Market Programme, a central pillar of which is to empower citizens and businesses.

2.1.4 New political priorities or emerging problems needing EU intervention (including legal commitments)

Reference is made to section 1.1.4 above to European Parliament and European Council statements on the internal market and competition policy. A number of emerging challenges have been set out in sections 2.1.2 and 2.1.3 above including the digital transformation and the need to engage more closely and effectively with national authorities and courts across all areas of completion policy as well as the need to reach out to a wider group of stakeholders. In addition, the following more specific instruments and provisions are relevant.

Article 31 of the proposal for Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council to empower the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market of 22 March 2017 (COM(2017) 142 final) (expected adoption in 2018) states that "The costs incurred by the Commission in connection with the maintenance and the development of the European Competition Network System and cooperation within the European Competition Network shall be borne by the general budget of the Union within the limit of the available appropriations".

2.2 Objectives of the programmes of the next MFF

2.2.1 General objective linked to the challenges described above

The general objective of the Competition programme is to support the Single Market Programme and thereby the functioning of the internal market.

2.2.2 Specific objectives linked to the challenges described above

First specific objective: To ensure that the enforcement of EU competition policy as well as policy guidance is supported by state-of-the-art tools and infrastructure (including software and hardware) as well as external technical expertise and information (falling within the "Support rule-making, standard setting and enforcement at EU institutions level" objective in the Single Market Programme).

Second specific objective: To strengthen, deepen and extend cooperation and partnerships with European public administrations (including national competition authorities and courts) in the form of direct contacts as well as interoperable IT infrastructures ensuring the exchange of confidential documents and information (falling within the "Administrative cooperation, capacity building and integration among Member States" objective under the Single Market Programme).

Third specific objective: To strengthen, deepen and extend cooperation and partnerships with third country authorities (including competition authorities) with a view to strengthening competition disciplines for the benefit of the internal market (falling within the "Support rule-making, standard setting and enforcement at EU institutions level" objective in the Single Market Programme).

Fourth specific objective: To raise awareness of EU competition policy among a wider group of stakeholders concerned by the enforcement of EU competition rules, thereby strengthening the effectiveness and legitimacy of those rules (falling within the "Empower citizens/consumers and businesses in particular SMEs at different stages of their development" objective under the Single Market Programme).

2.3 Cross cutting objectives of the new MFF

Section 3.3 below in particular explains how the Competition programme would enhance performance in support of the internal market, in particular given the major leverage effect of competition enforcement in terms of macroeconomic benefits. Being included in the Single Market Programme would also lead to increased flexibility and simplification eg given the possibility to carry out multiannual projects. The Competition programme would provide ample scope for synergies (not least in terms of joint studies and data collection) with other activities under the Single Market Programme. Possible synergies are outlined in section 4.3 below.

3. PROGRAMME STRUCTURE AND PRIORITIES

3.1 Prioritisation

The prioritisation in terms of objectives broadly follows the order in which the four specific objectives are set out in section 2.2 above.

According to that logic, the most prioritised actions would involve state-of-the-art software and hardware tools (such as forensic IT, investigative and data analysis as well as artificial intelligence), accompanied by trained operators. It would also include other external technical expertise and information sources falling under the first specific objective of the Competition programme (see 2.2). Actions relating to interoperable IT infrastructures ensuring the exchange of confidential documents and information as referred to in the second specific objective of the Competition programme should enjoy the same level of priority.

Next, as a second category, priority status should be afforded to the strengthening, deepening and extension of cooperation and partnerships with European public administrations (including national competition authorities and courts) in the form of direct contacts (seminars, trainings, workshops, meetings etc.).

Finally, a third priority would comprise the strengthening, deepening and extension of cooperation and partnerships with third country authorities (including competition authorities) (see third specific objective at 2.2) as well as actions aimed at raising awareness of EU competition policy among a wider group of stakeholders concerned by the enforcement of EU competition rules (fourth specific objective at 2.2).

3.2 Critical mass of funding and projects

The projects and funding required to support the specific objectives in the Competition programme satisfy the critical mass criterion for several reasons. First, the scale and scope of DG Competition's activities is (similar to the internal market) economy-wide. The numerous studies and evaluations referred to under 'Lessons learnt' above (see section 1.2.1) testify to the varied nature of DG Competition's enforcement – eg in terms of sectors - in the internal market. Second, DG Competition's enforcement concerns both the private sector as a whole (antitrust, cartels and merger control) as well as all tiers of the public sector (State aid) and to the extent that public undertakings engage in economic activity (antitrust, cartels and merger control). A key task of EU competition policy is also to engage in so-called competition advocacy aimed at making other policies and regulation more competition friendly; such advocacy is directed at many stakeholders groups as well as to the Member States and third countries (see the OECD's findings on the importance of advocacy at section 1.2.1).

As regards the first specific objective of the Competition programme (state-of-the-art enforcement and guidance), the transformational IT-driven challenges outlined above (see sections 2.1.2 and 2.1.3) will necessitate projects in step with fast-moving technological developments, likely resulting in significant costs (eg in the follow-up of complex decisions) (see section 2.1.3). State-of-the-art hardware and software acquisitions also need to be accompanied by highly skilled and trained operators. In the case of possible algorithmic collusion, firms continuously modify their algorithms, requiring continuous alertness and agility (including in terms of deployment of technology) on the part of competition authorities. The increasing complexity of cases referred to in sections 2.1.2 and 2.1.3 (eg evidentiary requirements and the more economic approach) is one of the drivers of this challenge (see graph below which reflects the considerable increase in the numbers of pages in merger decisions necessitated by the more complex category of merger cases (so-called phase-two cases) (x-axis denoting number of pages in the decision):

Deep engagement with the Member States will be needed to evaluate large State aid schemes (a process which already encompasses half of all aid reported in the EU and which will extend well beyond 2020); technical expertise will also be needed in connection with remaining cases in the banking sector involving impaired assets and asset relief.

IT projects play a key role under the Competition programme; such projects are launched by DG Competition during a test phase after which synergies are found with other activities under the Single Market Programme along the lines of the current CASE@EC case management system (see graph below):

Sector inquiries (both in the antitrust and State aid areas) aimed at supporting the Commission's key priorities also generate the need for expertise and studies; the Energy union and the Single Digital Market were the focus of two of the most recent sector inquiries, which are particularly resource intensive undertakings. Deepening and broadening the analysis of the various impacts of EU competition policy (eg the impact of deterrence and on innovation) will also generate demand for studies, workshops etc. A promising novel area of research concerns the extent to which effective competition policy reduces inequalities.

Likewise, the second specific objective (Boosting internal partnerships) is likely, by itself, to generate a critical mass of funding and projects (not least joint projects conducted with the Member States). First, the confidential nature of ongoing competition and State aid proceedings requires not only the maintenance and upgrading of secure and stable IT systems which are interoperable vis-à-vis the Member States. Already in 2017, the first full year of implementation of ECN2 (the new exchange platform for the ECN), more than 16,000 documents were exchanged and this number is only expected to increase as NCAs become better acquainted with this new tool; confidential face-to-face meetings go hand in hand with day-to-day antitrust and cartel enforcement and are indispensable for sustaining a well-functioning network with the national authorities and for agreeing on a coordinated approach in applying competition rules in the internal market. Looking at the period from 2010 to 2017, a total of 202 meetings of the various ECN working groups and sectoral subgroups took place. In 2017 27 ECN meetings took place per year within 22 groups.

Second, the need for actions under this specific objective is particularly pressing if the fruits of recent (State Aid Modernisation and the Antitrust Damages Directive) and planned (ECN+) legislation are to be harvested; for example, in the area of the Commission's multilateral partnership with the Member States, this need is illustrated by the number of multilateral working group meetings with Member States 179 as well as the range of key State aid issues discussed at these events at the request of the Member States or the Commission 180 .

Third, there is a need for a rapid, informal and confidential process whereby Member State authorities can seek clarification on material and procedural questions, eg in the area of EU State aid rules 181 . Reaching out to the sub-national level presents a special challenge for State aid control.

The increased enforcement activity of national authorities and courts due to the above-mentioned initiatives means that that there will be an even greater need to train national judges to deal with competition law issues. Looking at the period 2007-2016 a total of 8,020 judges received such training. To illustrate the scope for actions in this wide field, reference can be made to a recent evaluation of the need for training of judges in EU competition law 182 . Few judges deal with all aspects of EU competition law; the evaluation revealed that most judges with experience of EU competition law had dealt with only one type of enforcement action. The table shows the large number of judges that may have to deal with public enforcement (review of decisions by national authorities) and with private enforcement (ie actions for damages caused by antitrust or cartel infringements) where harm to victims in foregone compensation has been estimated to amount to several billions a year 183 . An even greater number of national judges are potentially concerned by the enforcement of State aid rules (national judges have the power, among other things, to order the recovery of illegal aid.)

Number of judges in the competent courts (EU total) (A denotes the number of judges who may potentially have to deal with competition cases; B denotes the number of judges specifically assigned to deal with competition cases)

Actions within the third ('Boosting external partnerships') and fourth ('Wider stakeholder outreach') specific objectives would add to the overall critical mass of funding.

The number of EU and Commission competition cooperation agreements and free trade agreements containing competition and State aid clauses serves as a useful benchmark to assess the level of convergence with third countries' competition regimes. There were 21 such agreements in 2016, necessitating continued follow-up, while leaving scope for further expansion. During the next MFF period, the number of completed agreements is expected to almost double, with an estimated 39 agreements to be concluded by end-2019 184  . Bilaterally, cooperation also takes place not only with partners with whom the Commission has signed a cooperation agreement (such as the US, Canada, Japan, Korea, China, Brazil and Switzerland), but also with new and emerging agencies in countries such as Mexico. Similarly, there is room for expanding the number of technical workshops organised with third country authorities as only three such events were organised in 2016 (two with China and one with India).

The scope of the Commission's cooperation with third country competition authorities with the aim of protecting the internal market in individual cases does not only include cartel and antitrust enforcement area but also extends to merger control (see graph illustrating the range of jurisdictions involved 185 ).

On the enlargement front, some of the candidate countries (eg Serbia and Montenegro) will require more assistance from the Commission to build a proper legislative framework in the area of EU competition policy. In the same vein, the European Neighbourhood Policy countries will require continued support from the Commission in the area of EU competition policy, in particular as regards State aid.

Similarly, at the multilateral level, the number of Commission contributions to relevant international bodies and fora can be used as a proxy for action in support towards international convergence of competition policy. The Commission provided 15 such contributions in 2016: eight to the OECD; five to the ICN (International Competition Network) and two to UNCAD. There is scope for greater contributions at the multilateral level not least as regards subsidy policy. The Commission is contributing to the discussions in WTO, and has set up a working group on international subsidies with the Member States. The Commission also continues to engage in sectoral initiatives to address subsidies in the international context, such as for steel (G20 Global Forum on steel excess capacity), for semiconductors (Regional support guidelines for the semiconductor industry) as well as for shipbuilding (OECD).

In addition, the Brexit negotiations on the withdrawal agreement and a future trade agreement will also require input on EU competition policy beyond the start of the next MFF period.

Finally, in relation to the fourth specific objective of the Competition programme, there is considerable scope for additional actions when expanding outreach beyond expert groups to categories of audiences affected by EU competition policy on the ground (such as businesses of all types, consumer organisations and regional and local authorities); indeed, the fact that in 2017 alone, officials of DG Competition were invited to give 173 lectures on EU antitrust, merger and State aid rules 186 mostly before expert audiences, illustrates the need for widening the outreach action.

3.3 Added value

In macroeconomic terms, the very significant leverage effect of EU competition policy (financed by a modest administrative budget) is incontestable as already explained in "Lessons learnt" in section 1.2.1. That finding is supported by a large body of studies 187 . For example, as regards the value added of competition policy enforcement, a study 188   from 2017 demonstrated that the Commission's cartel and merger decisions taken over the period 2012-2014 boosted GDP by 0.3% and employment by 0.2% after five years, similar to various estimates of the impact of the Services Directive 189 . The competition enforcement action – which only covered part of EU level competition enforcement – was also found to reduce inequalities between rich and poor households.

As these positive macroeconomic impacts in terms of GDP, employment and inequality reduction (see also section 1.2.1) are based on conservative assumptions and only rely on cartel and aspects of merger enforcement, they likely understate the real effects which, moreover, do not take into account the well-attested positive impacts on innovation or the effects of sanctioning and deterring abuses of a dominant position. Nor do they account for the considerable enforcement activity of the national competition authorities. While difficult to quantify, State aid control, which is focused on minimising distortions of competition in the internal market, also likely contributes considerably in macroeconomic terms 190 . There is consensus that competition as a driver of efficiencies is particularly important in knowledge intensive sectors, close to the technological frontier 191 . The order of magnitude of the contribution of State aid control, not least to fair competition in knowledge intensive sectors, is illustrated by the sheer size of large R&D&I-State aid schemes subject to mandatory State aid evaluation (see section 2.1.3 above). At the time of writing, eight approved R&D&I-aid schemes are subject to such valuation requirements aimed at assessing these schemes' direct impact on beneficiaries as well as their indirect impacts, both positive and negative; the evaluations also covers the well as proportionality and appropriateness of the schemes. The average annual budgets of these eight schemes together amount to around EUR 5.2 billion (corresponding to 5% of total State aid spending in the EU).

Further work is needed to establish the full macroeconomic contribution of an effective competition policy, for example the impact on inequality reduction (a current focus of the OECD: see graph below which shows how much for each dollar of monopoly profits, a total of USD is estimated to be transferred from the 90 percent poorest to the 10 percent richest in twelve OECD countries, half of which are EU Member States) 192 . Thus, although difficult to quantify, there are also strong grounds for arguing that EU competition policy reinforces the social dimension of the internal market (see also additional sources cited in section 1.2.1).

For each dollar of monopoly profits, how much money is distributed from the bottom 90 percent to the top 10 percent?

As noted at the outset (section 1.1), EU competition is de jure and de facto an integral pillar of the internal market. A suboptimal competition policy accordingly detracts from the potential of the internal market. This is particularly so in terms of the remaining gaps of the internal market on which EU competition policy has focused in recent years, including network industries such as financial services, electricity, gas transport, telecoms as well as the digital single market 193 ; indeed, the literature supports the existence of significant positive gains in terms of innovation and productivity to be made downstream by stimulating competition in such network sectors upstream, such as transport, energy and telecommunications 194 . Moreover, the Commission's competition advocacy and surveillance activities vis-à-vis the Member States (eg within the European Semester) pursues the same goals the internal market legislation, i.e. the removal of unnecessary or disproportionate restrictions on competition 195 . Cartel enforcement in connection with public procurement can make public procurement in the internal market more efficient 196 ; in the EU, the public purchase of goods and services has been estimated to be worth 16% of GDP 197 .

In view of the macroeconomic benefits outlined above, strengthening the enforcement of and compliance with EU competition law would generate significant added value at EU level; likewise, reinforcing the networks, partnerships and other cooperation structures – especially with the Member States - would produce additional added value.

As regards State aid control, the room for Member States to give aid without prior authorisation from the Commission has – as part of the State Aid Modernisation – been greatly expanded over the last four years, in order to make the procedure simpler and more focused, thereby facilitating public investment. Continuing to facilitate such efficiency-enhancing investment (which strengthens the internal market overall) would generate considerable value added. For instance, the number of RDI aid notifications dropped markedly after the SAM reform; at the same time, total spending for RDI under the reformed 2014 General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) – ie the cornerstone of SAM – more than doubled from EUR 3.3 billion in 2015 to EUR 7 billion EUR in 2016. To reap the benefits of the new State aid architecture, investments in the multilateral and bilateral partnerships would need to be stepped up (see section 2.1.3). The overall impact of SAM on newly implemented aid measures appears from the graph below:

As a result of the sharing of work with national competition authorities (NCAs) within the European Competition Network (ECN), the enforcement of the EU antitrust and cartel rules is now taking place on a scale which the Commission could never have achieved on its own. Since the empowerment of the NCAs to apply the Treaty rules on antitrust and cartels in 2004, the Commission and the NCAs have adopted over 1,000 enforcement decisions, of which 85% by the NCAs. Thus scaling up the investment in the ECN is likely to further increase the added value of the Competition programme, especially after the planned strengthening of the powers and independence of the NCAs (ECN+ directive), which is expected to lead to increased enforcement by the NCAs and, as a result, increased judicial review of NCA decisions, ultimately leading to an increased need for the Commission to provide support to NCAs and national courts and to train judges. In the digital economy, increasingly complex cases will intensify the need for early and in-depth coordination in cases, as well as more policy meetings to agree on new methods and tools to tackle novel anticompetitive practices across the internal market. To take but one example demonstrating the added value of cooperation within the ECN: during 2016 a coordinated monitoring of the online hotel booking sector was carried out by the Belgian, Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish and UK competition authorities and the Commission 198 . The pie chart below demonstrates the considerable extent to which enforcement within the ECN – ie the Commission and the NCAs – during its first ten years focused on sectors where the internal market is incomplete 199 .

The need for training of national judges increases also due to the very recent entry into effect of the antitrust damages directive, which aims to help citizens and companies claim compensation if they are victims of infringements of EU antitrust rules. Ensuring a coherent and consistent application of the rules to compensation by national judges is crucial for ensuring that citizens and businesses harmed by anticompetitive practices can receive adequate compensation independent of the Member State they are located in. It is noted that the amounts of foregone compensations by victims of cartels and other antitrust infringements have been considerable so far 200 .

Investment in cooperation between the Commission and the National Competition Authorities would also be required to increase the added value from the EU's one-stop-shop merger control. Since 1990 EU merger control has helped to enable the corporate restructuring associated with the development of the internal market, EMU and globalisation, while ensuring that such restructuring - mostly in the form of concentrations - preserves and strengthens competition in the internal market. The obligation to cooperate is legal in nature ("The Commission should act in close and constant liaison with the competent authorities of the Member States from which it obtains comments and information") 201 . As an example of added value and synergies of investment by the Commission, reference is made to the study on the definition of geographic markets in Commission merger cases which became a point of reference among EU competition authorities (see section 2.1.3). Moreover, as the number of notifications increases (ie the current trajectory: see graph), the need to closely and constantly cooperate with NCAs rises.

It is well established that successful advocacy in favour of competition friendly rules and regulation ultimately makes the economy more productive 202 . To this end, increased investment in boosting external partnerships (eg pushing for convergence and cooperating on concrete cases) will continue to add value (whilst protecting the internal market against anticompetitive conduct abroad).

Expanding outreach activities to encompass more categories of audiences affected by EU competition policy is also likely to add value: the better the rights and obligations under those rules are known and understood, the better they are enforced; a greater understanding of the rules and their rationale among wider groups of stakeholders would also be likely to add political support and legitimacy to EU competition policy, in particular among the Member States, increasing strengthening their resistance to lobbying efforts by vested interests and incumbent firms facing competitive threats.

From a strict legal standpoint, the issue of added value (which forms part of an assessment according to the principle of subsidiarity), does not arise in the case of competition policy which is an exclusive competence (see section 1.1). According to Article 5(3) TEU the principle of subsidiarity does not – legally speaking - apply in areas of exclusive competence. But, as appears throughout this report, a political choice has been made to enable and to share work with Member States in State aid control, antitrust and merger enforcement through numerous mechanisms and arrangements. Doing less at the centralised level, and more at the national level – within the scope of the EU exclusive competences - has helped increase the effectiveness of the enforcement of EU competition rules. The envisaged Competition programme would further entrench that political choice.

Also, the preceding added value assessment (although not strictly speaking legally required) can be considered justified from a Better Regulation perspective, in particular given that no spending programme has so far been considered to support EU competition policy. In view of the very significant leverage effect of EU competition policy in terms of consumer and customer welfare, unlocking the potential of the internal market and macroeconomic benefits, the Competition programme is also proportionate to the specific objectives set out in section 2.2; the principle of proportionality is also served by the actions envisaged under the second specific objective involving partnerships at the national level (ie without undue centralisation).

Finally, as mentioned in section 1.2.1, EU competition policy financed by an administrative budget of EUR 7.5 million (figures for 2016), impacts the overall EU budget collaterally through fines mainly in cartel and antitrust decisions (over the past decade, annual fines have averaged EUR 1.7 billion, varying between EUR 0.4 billion and EUR 4.2 billion) 203 .

4.1 Consequences of a baseline scenario (ie no Competition programme) versus a Competition Programme scenario

The Competition programme would constitute a new element in the MFF context. As it has not been evaluated previously, the likely impacts of a 'no change' scenario (see in particular section 2 above) are worth reiterating briefly. If EU competition policy would remain unsupported by a programme (and continue to be financed by a modest small administrative budget) it would soon become less effective, less efficient and less relevant. It would be less coherent with the Commission's and the EU's obligation to complete and strengthen the internal market; the Commission would probably lose its current international leadership in competition policy, and thereby diminish its possibilities to shape global economic governance; thus, stakeholders’ awareness of, and support for, EU competition policy would dwindle over time, resulting in a gradual loss of legitimacy across the Union.

Conversely, as outlined in section 3, in view of the very significant leverage effect of EU competition policy in terms of consumer and customer welfare, unlocking the potential of the internal market and macroeconomic benefits, an adequately funded programme would generate considerable value added in terms of an effective, efficient and relevant enforcement and development of EU competition policy, including through the strengthening of partnerships with national authorities and courts. The Commission would also be able to maintain and reinforce its current global leadership in this important area of economic governance. Greater awareness and understanding of EU competition policy on the part of stakeholders would further reinforce such positive feedback loops.

4.2 Broad categories of actions under the Competition programme

Before addressing the specific mechanisms by which the Competition programme could be funded and delivered on the ground such as procurement and grants, it is appropriate to set out certain broad categories of actions which cover all four specific objectives of the Competition programme as defined in section 2.2 above. 204

The broad categories of actions below have been inspired by the definition of actions under current programmes (2014-2020) in the consumer, customs and taxation as well as justice areas, adapted where appropriate to the specificities of the envisaged competition programme.

Actions in the area of IT tools and related expertise to protect competition in support of the internal market, in particular: 

·establishment, maintenance, development and, modernisation of IT tools such as databases, information and communication systems, specific software (eg eDiscovery software and proof of concept of software), forensic IT, investigative data (including Big Data) and economic analysis, artificial intelligence 205 as well as IT tools for the monitoring of markets and sectors relevant to competition policy;

·enlisting skilled experts necessary in connection with the use of IT tools;

·acquisition of IT equipment necessary in connection with the use of IT tools and expert work.

Actions in the form acquisition of other expertise and information sources, including through expert meetings, to protect competition in support of the internal market:

·Acquisition of expertise, studies, consultations, market intelligence, databases and other information sources (eg procurement of external technical expertise in complex and time-sensitive investigations) 206 ;

·organisation and procurement of and participation in expert events (such as seminars, workshops and conferences);

·monitoring of markets and sectors relevant to EU competition policy.

Human competency actions, including the development and strengthening of networks with the Member States and third countries, to protect competition in support of the internal market:

·strengthening cooperation and cooperation structures with and between national enforcement bodies, national courts and other relevant Member State or third country authorities (especially the multilateral and bilateral State aid partnerships, the European Competition Network, the Association of European Competition Law judges and the merger network);

·supporting Member State authorities (especially within the State aid partnerships, the European Competition Network and the merger network) and courts as well as third country authorities through capacity building, training, increasing transparency and stepping up exchanges of best practices and expertise as well as exchanges of enforcement officials and training (for example through the organisation of and participation in working visits, seminars, conferences, workshops and meetings of stakeholders and experts).

Outreach actions to protection competition in support of the internal market, in particular:

·Organisation of and participation in seminars, conferences, workshops, meetings and working visits involving stakeholders, in particular those affected by EU competition policy, to improve their knowledge and awareness of EU competition policy (including their rights and obligations under EU competition policy) as well as to increase political support for, and therefore the effectiveness of, EU competition policy.

·Surveys (such as Eurobarometer surveys) to measure the knowledge of and views on EU competition policy.

·Support for events concerning EU competition policy organised by the Member State holding the Council Presidencies.

4.3 Synergies with other activities covered by the Single Market Programme

It is envisaged that synergies be pursued across the Single Market Programme through joint activities (data gathering and processing, IT tools etc.). This also applies to the Competition programme; in addition, a result of closer cooperation between Commission services it would be expected that additional synergies are discovered and developed during the implementation of the Single Market Programme.

Therfore, before addressing the more detailed issue of delivery mechanisms it is appropriate to outline possible areas of synergies with actions under the other activities 207 envisaged to be brought under the Single Market Programme (see table below). The possible areas and examples of synergies below are not intended to be exhaustive.