MEMO/07/20

Brussels, 15 January 2007

Eurobarometer surveys on citizens' and businesses' views on the Single Market

Citizens

The Citizens survey (Special EB 254) was carried out in February-March 2006 with around 25,000 respondents across the EU. Its main findings show that EU citizens are, in general, satisfied with the possibilities that the Single Market offers and perceive the effect on competition (67 %), range (73 %) and quality (58 %) of products as positive:

• The majority of citizens in every country (except Germany) believe that increasing worker mobility can help to better fight unemployment.
• Travelling in between Member States is perceived as easier by a majority of 72 %.
• A reasonable share of EU citizens (36%) has contemplated living in another Member State.
• Wider Internet access is believed to have a positive effect on cross-border shopping, although citizens expressed concerns regarding the security of buying products and services across the EU online.

However:

• Buying financial services (mortgages, insurances) from other Member States is still only considered by a small minority of citizens.
• Less than half of citizens of every Member State feel informed about their Single Market rights. The services offered by the European Union to give information to citizens about the Single Market are not known to 7 out of 10 citizens.

Businesses

Two surveys on Businesses were carried out (Flash EB 180 and 190): one in July-August 2006 in the 10 Member States that joined the EU in 2004 (EU-10), and another in January-February 2006 in the 15 "older" Member States (EU-15). In total nearly 7,500 executives were interviewed. Some interesting comparisons can be made EU-10 and EU-15 businesses:

• 35% of company executives in EU-10 consider that the Single Market has had a positive impact on their firm's activities, 27% say there was no impact and only 5% that this impact was negative. In EU-15, 30% consider that the Single Market has had a positive effect and only 7% a negative effect, while an average of 51% sees no influence.
• The measures seen as having the most positive impact include, in decreasing order: elimination of customs documentation, abolition of border controls, VAT procedures for sales within the EU, European product standards, the liberalisation of capital movements, labelling and packaging rules, public procurement rules and rules for establishing a business in other EU countries.
• More than one company in four in EU-15 has already recruited staff from other Member States (Highest proportion in Luxembourg with 66%, lowest in Greece with 2%), whereas only 10 % of companies in EU-10 confirmed they have done so (Cyprus: 26%; Latvia: 3%).
• A majority of firms in EU-15 state that the 2004 Enlargement has had no impact on their companies' strategies regarding access to markets, productivity, costs of materials and wages, etc. In EU-10, the answers relating to positive experience outnumber those based on negative ones. Interestingly, while one in four companies in EU-15 is engaged in trade with EU-10 countries, 54% of the companies in EU-10 are EU-15 countries.

In the view of many companies from both EU-15 and EU-10:

• The level of competition from companies in other EU countries has risen, as a result of the Single Market (by 49% in EU-10 and 46% in EU-15), whereas 23% (EU-10) and 30% (EU-15) perceive that there is a rise of competition from non-EU