Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcasts.

With 450 million consumers, the EU single market is the largest of its kind, and one of the EU's greatest achievements.

But 30 years later, as the analyses by Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi demonstrate, challenges remain.

And clear EU action is urgently needed to make sure it remains a success story.

Stay with us.

The EU single market counts 27 EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein,

and 31 million active companies, most

of them SMEs.

It provides jobs for 56 million Europeans, and the estimated economic benefits range between

8% and 9% of EU GDP.

Thanks to this, the EU is among the largest trading blocks in the world, representing

15% of world GDP compared with the US's 16% and China's 19%. And it's not only about being an

attractive place for foreign investors, it makes the EU a powerful geopolitical actor in an increasingly volatile and complex world.

So yes, the EU single market is all this, and much more.

But as recent crises have shown, it's still far from perfect.

So what are the main hurdles?

Well, the COVID pandemic first and the war in Ukraine later revealed not only the single

market's vulnerability in the face of major external shocks, but also the extent to which

Europe's competitiveness relies on a well-oiled single market, ensuring free access to the goods

and services EU supply chains need.

Remember the empty supermarket shelves during COVID, the rising energy bills after Russia's

invasion of Ukraine.

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