Who killed Europe’s single market dream?

Europe’s economy felt undercharged, and under siege. Its advanced tech sector had fallen behind, while the US and Asia’s manufacturing powerhouses were riding high. For business, even moving the simplest things within Europe seemed to involve bureaucratic torment. “Is it over-optimistic to announce a decision to eliminate all frontiers within Europe and to implement it?” asked one of Europe’s leaders. “Those who have nothing to propose are soon forgotten or held in contempt. Those who do not have the means to match their ambitions are rapidly reduced to tagging along behind.” The politician was Jacques Delors, the year 1985. From his European Commission emerged a vision: the single market, the world’s largest integrated cross-border economy that came to span 450mn consumers. Yet 40 years on, that project has failed to deliver on the ambitions of Delors, Margaret Thatcher and the generation that championed change. While many internal barriers on goods were removed by 1992, they remain —

Europe’s economy felt undercharged, and under siege. Its advanced tech sector had fallen behind, while the US and Asia’s manufacturing powerhouses were riding high. For business, even moving the simplest things within Europe seemed to involve bureaucratic torment. “Is it over-optimistic to announce a decision to eliminate all frontiers within Europe and to implement it?” asked one of Europe’s leaders. “Those who have nothing to propose are soon forgotten or held in contempt. Those who do not have the means to match their ambitions are rapidly reduced to tagging along behind.” The politician wa