The Letta Report’s proposal to establish a “fifth freedom” – the free flow of knowledge, data, research, innovation and skills – responds to a concrete and urgent need. It reflects the recognition that Europe’s ability to generate, transfer and apply knowledge has become a decisive factor for economic strength, social cohesion and strategic autonomy. The Fifth Freedom is therefore conceived as a structural answer to the EU’s persistent fragmentation and lack of scale in key enabling factors of innovation.

At its core, building a Fifth Freedom for the Single Market means constructing an enabling economic infrastructure that makes the free circulation of knowledge,research, innovation and skills an operational reality. Achieving this objective requires a dual approach that combines a horizontal method shaping the overall architecture of the knowledge economy with targeted interventions in priority domains such as research infrastructures, talent and data.