Regina Doherty addresses the Commissioner, arguing that the EU single market remains fragmented and urging urgent market integration. She warns that 27 separate national systems for energy, digital rules and capital markets are undermining European competitiveness.
Main argument: Regina Doherty says the single market is still a patchwork. She points to 27 different energy markets, 27 digital rule books and 27 capital markets, and argues this fragmentation is largely self-inflicted and prevents scale for entrepreneurs.
Comparative context: Doherty contrasts Europe with the United States and China, noting how larger unified markets allow faster innovation and industrial mobilization, while European startups must navigate 27 sets of forms to reach customers.
Policy demands: She calls for concrete market integration rather than treaty changes - completing the capital markets union, creating a genuine energy union so power can be shared freely, and delivering a functioning digital single market to allow a Dublin startup to sell to 450 million customers with ease.
Implications: Doherty frames the next phase of European integration as practical market work: not 27 markets politely cooperating, but one market, one ambition, one Europe, to restore competitiveness and scale for EU businesses.
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The next speaker is Miss Doherty for one and a half minute, please. Thank you, Chair. Commissioner, for more than 30 years, we've congratulated ourselves on the single market. We think it's the jewel on the crown of Europe. But we have to be honest, it's absolutely nowhere close to being truly single. We have 27 different energy markets, 27 digital rule books, 27 capital markets. In too many cases, we have 27 bureaucracies protecting national comfort zones. That's not a single market, it's a complete patchwork. And while we're dithering, the world is moving on. The United States can scale innovation across one market of 330 million customers. China can mobilize on capitals and industry at continental scales. And in Europe, we make our entrepreneurs fill out 27 sets of forms. If we're really serious about competitiveness, then the job is far from done. A real single market means completing the capital markets union. It means a genuine energy union so that power can freely be shared. It means a digital single market where a startup in Dublin can really sell to the 450 million customers that we have in Europe with ease. The uncomfortable truth is our fragmentation is mostly self-inflicted. So the next steps of European integration will not be written in our treaties, it will be written in market integration. Not 27 markets politely cooperating with each other, but one market, one ambition, one Europe.
