Spain has proposed four initiatives to strengthen the European single market amid US President Donald Trump’s global trade war. The proposal includes “simplifying the day-to-day life” of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and opening up cross-border opportunities.

The proposed measures aim to reduce bureaucracy, facilitate access to resources and promote a more dynamic and efficient business environment while accelerating the integration of the single market, Carlos Cuerpo, Spain’s minister for trade and business, said during a business meeting between Spain and Italy in Barcelona on 5 September.

“Our goal is to create a regulatory framework that allows companies to focus on what they do best: innovate, grow and create jobs,” Cuerpo said in a government statement.

According to Eurostat, Trump’s tariffs – currently levied at 15% on most European Union (EU) exports to the US – are beginning to impact economic growth in the EU.

The latest Eurostat data shows that the EU’s seasonally adjusted gross domestic product increased by 0.2% in the second quarter of 2025, down from 0.5% in the first quarter.

Key measures of the proposal include:

  • Creation of a single gateway for comprehensive and accessible information on how to meet EU regulatory requirements, supporting SMEs in overcoming linguistic, cultural and regulatory barriers and encouraging greater use of the internal market.
  • Facilitating SME access to the public procurement market in Europe. According to the statement, this is fragmented across 27 platforms. However, by using artificial intelligence, the proposal aims to aggregate all national and regional public tenders to reduce complexity and open up cross-border opportunities.
  • Creating a mutual recognition system for credit ratings across the EU to improve European companies’ access to credit and strengthen their capacity to develop projects.
  • Encouraging banking sector financing through a securitisation platform that would also standardise processes, reduce costs and enable cross-border aggregation of loans to boost the growth of companies across the EU.

Cuerpo said the proposal had been shared with the European Commission, which oversees the single market and allows the free movement of goods, services, capital and EU citizens between member states.

Italy, Portugal and France are ready to collaborate in the initiative, he said.

The single market was established in 1993 and is made up of the 27-member EU bloc plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.