Bakgrunn (KOM(2008) 31, engelsk utgave)

One of the main conclusions of the Commission’s communication on the single
market review is that the market has to be more responsive to the expectations and
concerns of citizens and more able to adjust to the challenges of globalisation. In the
face of these challenges more attention needs to be paid to the final outcomes
affecting EU citizens and not just to the legal tools. Policies need to be more
evidence-based and outcome-oriented. Better monitoring and evaluation of outcomes
for citizens is a priority for the Commission to move to the next stage of the single
market. While better monitoring is important because it will help drive better
policymaking and regulation, it is also essential in itself as a way of demonstrating to
citizens that their concerns are taken into account.

It is in their role as consumers that most of our citizens experience the single market
on a daily basis. Their consumer experience therefore influences their views on the
single market and the EU as a whole. Better outcomes for consumers are the ultimate
goal of all single market policies and the litmus test for their success. In an
increasingly consumer-oriented, globalised economy, a single market that responds
more efficiently to consumer demands also helps to deliver an innovative and
competitive economy.

The single market is not exclusively an economic project. It also safeguards certain
social standards. Similarly, consumer interests cannot be exclusively defined in terms
of economic efficiency. Citizens expect single market policy to deliver socially
acceptable outcomes, sometimes at the expense of economic efficiency. For example,
concern for human health, the environment and safety means that consumer products
are strictly regulated. There is also a consensus that affordable access to certain
essential commercially provided services, vital for economic and social inclusion,
should be guaranteed to all, wherever they live. The concept of 'market
malfunctioning' should therefore be understood in the Scoreboard context as
covering both inefficient allocation of resources and a failure to deliver these
outcomes.

Evidence on the performance of the single market for consumers is however largely
absent at present. Developing the indicators to better monitor this demand-side
aspect of the single market is, therefore, key to the new Commission approach. The
Scoreboard will contribute to the general monitoring exercise by trying to detect
those cases where signs of market malfunctioning are linked to unsatisfactory
conditions of the consumer environment. The data gathered will not only help deliver
a better consumer policy, but will feed through to all policies that affect consumers,
ensuring the better integration of consumer interests into all EU policies.