EU leaders agree to accelerate single market, in struggle to compete with US and China

European Union leaders agreed on Thursday on a wide-ranging set of commitments to improve how the bloc’s border-free internal market works so Europe’s businesses can be competitive and survive aggressive economic rivalry from the U.S. and China.

Meeting at a Belgian castle, the leaders, stressing how urgent it was to act, agreed to speed up the completion of a savings and investment union, review merger rules to help create European champions, make it easier for companies to get started and operate...