The European single market is supposed to be free from obstacles. People and goods, services and capital are to be treated equally - independent of which EU or ESS country they originate from. The single market is also a major reason why Swedish companies are generally very positive towards the EU.
The European single market is supposed to be free from obstacles. People and goods, services and capital are to be treated equally - independent of which EU or ESS country they originate from. The single market is also a major reason why Swedish companies are generally very positive towards the EU.
But does the single market work as intended? Not without friction, says Anna-Lena Bohm, CEO of Uniguide AB, chair for the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise’s SME Committee and vice chair of BusinessEurope’s Entrepreneurship and SME Committee.
In the latter capacity she held a seminar on SME and digitalisation at the BusinessEurope conference on February 21 on the theme ”Is the EU single market SME-friendly? What does SMEs actually need?” Anna-Lena Bohm dedicated her address to a few important policy issues, such as VAT and geo-blocking.
EU as a whole is a product of its member countries, and they do not always agree on common rules and routines. This, of course, affects the workings of the single market.
VAT regulations in particular give many entrepreneurs a headache. Modern times brings modern products, and many fall somewhere in between a service and a product – or is, perhaps, both at once. Knowing which VAT rate to use is not always easy, especially for smaller companies.
The reason is that the member states controls their own taxes and VAT rates and so far there are no comprehensive proposals on joint regulation in that area.
Geoblocking is a term used in e-commerce and refers to different techniques to prevent online sales in a certain geographical area. At present geoblocking is permitted but there is proposals to ban the practice within the EU. The idea that e-commerce should be open for all within the EU is a good one. But if a company has to sell their goods to anyone and everyone within the EU it also means it has to take in to consideration all the consumer protection laws and taxes rules in every single member state. To a larger corporation this is usually not a problem, but for smaller companies it makes for a heavy administrative burden.