By increasing levels of competition, the Internal Market can do
much to ensure that firms are quick to adopt innovative technologies, increase quality and reduce prices for consumers, and as such the Internal Market is central to the EU's aim of enhancing its competitiveness vis-à-vis its main trading partners. However, some key economic indicators suggest that the Internal Market's impact on competition has recently slowed down. First, the growth of manufacturing trade inside the EU has begun to falter, which generally means less pressure on companies to improve their performance. This contributes to a second phenomenon which is that pr
...[+++]ices across the EU are no longer converging even though price differences between EU Member States far exceed those between different regions of the USA. Third, the EU is investing more in the rest of the world than the rest of the world is investing in the EU, a warning perhaps that it is more urgent than ever to reform the EU's general regulatory environment and kick-start its Internal Market once again.
Cette situation favorise un deuxième phénomène, à savoir l'arrêt de la convergence des prix au sein de l'UE, alors même que les écarts de prix entre les États membres de l'UE dépassent de loin ceux observés entre les différentes régions des États-Unis. Troisièmement, l'UE investit davantage dans le reste du monde que vice-versa, ce qui constitue peut-être un avertissement quant à la nécessité, plus urgente que jamais, de réformer l'environnement réglementaire général de l'UE et de redonner un coup de fouet au marché intérieur communautaire.
