Remarks by President António Costa at the press conference following the European Council meeting of 19 March 2026
2026 is the year of European competitiveness. Strengthening our competitiveness is essential. It is essential to boost economic growth, ensure the creation of quality jobs, protect purchasing power and strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy.
In the current geopolitical context, a strong Europe is more important than ever. And it is on that basis that I am pleased to announce that European leaders today endorsed the ‘One Europe, One Market’ agenda. This is an ambitious action plan, with clearly defined timelines to be implemented by the end of 2027, but mostly this year, in 2026.
I won’t list all the measures now, but you can read them in the conclusions.
First of all, our priority is to complete the single market. Our aim is to tackle the ‘terrible ten’ barriers to the internal market by March 2027.
This year, we will take decisions, first of all to ensure the mutual recognition of professional qualifications so as to ensure the mobility of workers in Europe. By the end of the year we will approve the Commission’s newly presented proposal to create a single voluntary regime for all companies wishing to adopt it to help them operate across the internal market. Concrete decisions are also needed by the end of the year to develop the capital markets union, that is, the savings and investments union, particularly regarding securitisation, supplementary pension schemes and the integration of financial markets and supervision. We must also adopt measures by the end of the year to develop the digital euro.
Finally, we will continue our simplification agenda, first of all by approving all the omnibus packages that the Commission has already presented by the end of the year and by calling on the Commission to continue its work towards simplification.
It is clear that high energy prices are one of the biggest challenges for the competitiveness of the European Union. The current crisis in the Middle East and its impact on global energy supply confirm that the path we have chosen is the right one, which means that we need to become more self-sufficient, relying on our own energy sources. Decarbonisation and local energy sources remain the right way forward to limit dangerous dependencies and lower energy prices in the long term.
But we also need to take immediate action to protect our citizens and businesses. In this regard, the Commission will present a set of temporary and targeted measures, on the one hand, to take into account the specific situations of member states and the particular vulnerability of certain energy-intensive industrial sectors in order to counter the risk of relocation and to protect jobs. And on the other hand, we must deal with the recent surge in the prices of imported fossil fuels, linked to the Middle East crisis.
In our meeting with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, we stressed that the European Union would remain a predictable, reliable and credible partner in supporting an international order based on the rules of international law and multilateralism.
In terms of common challenges, we paid particular attention to Ukraine. Our support for Ukraine remains unwavering and we continue to work towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine, based on the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law, including the right to sovereignty, territorial integrity and respect for internationally recognised borders. We need to step up pressure on Russia to weaken its war economy and compel it to negotiate. In this context, we expressed our concern at the decision of the United States to partially lift sanctions already imposed on Russia.
As regards developments in Iran and the Middle East, the European Council continues to call for de-escalation and maximum restraint, and the protection of civilians and essential infrastructure, in particular infrastructure dedicated to energy production. The European Union stands by the Lebanese people and their government and calls for an end to hostilities.