Labour MEP Louis Grech has told the Single Market Forum held in Krakow, Poland that the European Union must take concrete action through its Single Market to address daily common needs of EU citizens.

Addressing the forum, which was held last week, Mr Grech said that the most important problems that need to be tackled without further delay include the opening of bank accounts in other member states, high prices for telecommunications such as internet and mobile telephony, difficulties faced in making online purchases and recognition of mutual qualifications. He said such problems have a better chance of being resolved through an EU Citizen’s Rights Charter.

Mr Grech’s proposals were made during one of the panel discussions held during the forum, where he was joined, among others by Polish Deputy Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak and European Commissioner for Internal services Michel Barnier.

Mr Grech insisted that there was nothing irreversible about the EU’s economic integration, and it was therefore the member states’ and the Commission’s responsibility to communicate to citizens the benefits and rights they enjoy in the Single Market.

“The Single Market should work for citizens, not the other way round,” he said.

“Though member states generally transposed laws and regulations expeditiously, bureaucracy still stifled implementation of the laws and did not sort out inconsistencies between transposed directives,” he insisted.

Mr Grech also praised Mr Barnier for his strenuous efforts to implement many of the points raised in his report about the single market, adopted by the European Parliament earlier this year, but he regretted that the top 20 frustrations of European citizens included in this report showed that there was still a substantial way to go before citizens could regain their confidence in the single market.

Malta was also represented at the forum by Nationalist MP Karl Gouder and Labour’s Stefan Bontempo.

The forum was attended by some 1,000 delegates from all over the EU.