Insights from Brussels - Is there an internal market?
It's a long way from Brussels to Odda. But maybe not as far as you might think.
Towards the end of April I went to Hardangerbyen to visit the Ullensvang municipality. We discussed the time of change we are living in and the major changes in Europe, and the advantages of bringing together western Norwegian municipalities in the VNB network. A visit to Boliden was also on the agenda. For over a hundred years they have produced zinc at Sørfjorden, based on clean and affordable hydropower and a local environment with industrial expertise through several generations.
Almost everything produced at the Odda plant is exported, most of it to Europe. Market access to the EU is a do or don't for the company. It must be secured by the internal market of which Norway is a part. But is there really an internal market, with equal conditions across national borders? The EU itself is increasingly doubtful about this. The recognition that major barriers to trade within the union still exist could now trigger a comprehensive wave of reforms.
Measures to ensure free movement and make the internal market more unified are of course nothing new. There has been a steady stream of such measures since the beginning, and directives that were supposed to remove internal trade barriers in Europe have been the source of some of the fiercest EEA battles in Norwegian politics. Just think of the Services Directive, the Temporary Agency Directive and the Postal Directive, not to mention the fourth energy market package that led to the divorce of the Labour/Socialist government in the spring of 2025.
There is, however, reason to expect a more intense reform drive from the EU institutions in the future. Geopolitical tensions and the desire to reduce dependence on other economic powers are leading to greater ambitions and more urgency. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the EU will lose ground and account for 12.9 percent of global GDP in 2030 , compared to 20.3 percent for China and 13.8 percent for the United States. Strengthening competitiveness to reduce this gap is therefore a key part of the Commission's strategy for a more independent Europe.
In connection with the informal meeting of the European Council in Cyprus at the end of April, a joint declaration was launched by the Cypriot Presidency, the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola and the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen. Through a roadmap for realizing “One Europe, One Market”, the EU’s executive and legislative bodies committed themselves to implementing a number of processes that will make a more unified internal market a reality, and to do so by the end of 2027. Among other things, the reforms will eliminate the so-called “terrible ten” , the ten most important obstacles to a real internal market. Among them are the lack of recognition of education and competences across borders, the lack of common standards, divergent rules for things like packaging and labeling, and national regulations that hinder trade in services. In addition, the lack of national implementation of EU regulations is pointed out. It is not only Norway that is lagging behind. Now the Commission is warning that they will crack down harder on countries that are lagging behind .
The leaders of the three EU institutions promise that it will be easy to monitor whether they are meeting the goals they have set in the roadmap. All the measures to be implemented have been given a deadline, and they are grouped under five so-called “strategic building blocks”. In addition to simplifying rules and a more integrated market without the “terrible ten”, it is about new trade agreements that can reduce dependence on the US and China, about decarbonisation and lower energy prices, and about a series of regulations that will both accelerate Europe’s digital transformation and try to wrest away American tech giants’ almost total control over the AI revolution.
The One Europe, One Market plan is full of initiatives that will affect Norway, directly and indirectly. How far-reaching they will be and whether the ambitious timetable can be maintained remains to be seen. How much political conflict the new wave of reforms will trigger, both in the EU and Norway, is also in the blue. Just fasten your seatbelts. And, not least: follow VNB's newsletters, webinars and notes.