with the Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI), the EU Commission intends to learn the lessons taught by the pandemic. The emergency instrument enables the Commission to make deep interventions in the single market in the event of a crisis. „We don’t want a planned economy,“ said the responsible commissioner, Thierry Breton, when presenting the proposal. However, that is precisely the accusation of the critics. The crisis measures would have „strong interventionist and planned economy features,“ said Wolfgang Niedermark, a BDI’s executive board member. Also harsh in criticizing the proposal is Matthias Kullas, an internal market expert at the Center for European Policy. Berlin, on the other hand, welcomes the plans. Markus Grabitz knows the details.