Labour MEP Louis Grech re-elected IMCO vice-chairman

As Vice-Chair of this Committee since 2009, Louis Grech has pushed for a relaunch of the Single Market in order to offer advantages for European citizens and spearhead the response to the economic crisis.

His landmark 2010 report 'Delivering a Single Market to consumers and citizens' proposed the creation of a Single Market Act (SMA) to achieve these goals. The Commission ultimately proposed the SMA based upon many of the proposals of the Grech report and a separate report produced in parallel by Prof. Mario Monti.

"Without an effective Single Market, the EU is not truly a union. The Single Market holds the key to restarting stalled European economies, but it also offers substantial benefits in the form of access to a wider range of products and services, and strong, effective consumer protection," Grech said in a statement.

Grech has also participated as a keynote speaker at numerous events on creating a Single Market for citizens, consumers and SMEs, including giving a statement at a hearing in the House of Lords in 2010 and more recently, at the Single Market Forum in Krakow, itself the result of a proposal in the Grech report.

Within IMCO, Grech is also Standing Rapporteur for Comitology - which involves scrutinising the work of the Commission - and has been responsible for drafting a number of other opinion reports including: 'Europe, the World's No. 1 Tourist Destination'  'Insurance Guarantee Schemes' and the 'EU Citizenship Report 2010- Dismantling the obstacles to EU citizens' rights'.