The Commission presented the new Single Market Emergency Instrument in September. This crisis governance framework aims to preserve the free movement of goods, services and persons and the availability of essential goods and services in the event of future emergencies. This in reaction to the many issues that occurred during the first months of the COVID-19 crisis, which highlighted structural shortcomings in the EU's ability to effectively respond to emergency situations in a coordinated manner. Unilateral measures caused fragmentation, worsening the crisis, and affecting particularly SMEs.

The Single Market Emergency Instrument establishes a crisis management framework to identify different threats to the Single Market and ensure its smooth functioning. It does this by creating a crisis governance architecture to monitor the Single Market, identify different levels of risk and coordinate an appropriate response. It also allows proposing new actions to address threats and when the emergency mode has been activated, free movement in the Single Market will be upheld through a blacklist of prohibited restrictions and, more generally, through reinforced and rapid scrutiny of unilateral restrictions.

Under extraordinary circumstances, and only when the emergency mode has already been activated, the Commission may issue targeted information requests to economic operators, which can be made binding. It may also ask them to accept priority rated orders for crisis-relevant products, in response to which firms must either comply or explain the grave reasons justifying refusal. Furthermore, the accelerated placing on the market of certain products through quicker testing and accreditation, including through conformity assessment, will ensure their availability during emergencies.

The proposals will now be discussed by the European Parliament and Council of the European Union