European businesses 'require more unified infrastructure'

Businesses in Europe would benefit from a more unified and better integrated infrastructure across the continent, according to an expert.

Francine Caruan, executive for EU policy and legislation at Malta-EU information organisation Meusac, told the Malta Business Weekly that functions such as procurement, cross-border trading and ecommerce would all be enhanced by such measures.

She noted that currently, investments in pan-European transport, energy and digital networks are lagging behind more successful attempts to create regulatory harmonisation within the EU.

According to the expert, many of these issues could be remedied by the new Connecting Europe Facility proposal, a financial instrument to speed up investment in these areas.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has stated that it will help to generate jobs and growth for EU businesses.

"These growth enhancing connections will provide better access to the internal market and terminate the isolation of certain economic 'islands'," Ms Caruan explained.