How The Single European Market

The purpose of this report is to provide information on the Single European Act (SEA) for a Business Seminar on the Single market. Throughout this report, I will analyse and evaluate the Single European Act, the workings of the internal market and how far any recent changes have succeeded.

In order to understand the evolvement of the Single Market of the European Union, one has to take the general background into consideration. Therefore, it is important to have a look at the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht Treaty) which gave birth to the creation of the Single Market. Having been the Common Market before the Maastricht treaty, the European Economic Community (EEC) Treaty already clarified the objective of cooperation between member states. Throughout the Single Market, those objectives should be transformed into reality.

In this report I will be explaining why and how the single market has developed, in a formal report format, for a Business Seminar. I will be evaluating the Single European Act and the workings of the Internal Market. I will analyse and evaluate how far any recent changes have succeeded and the likelihood of future changes being successful.

With the effect of the Single European Act on 1st July 1987, the emergence of European Union (EU) as a common market has essentially been created. The benefits of this act are substantial to European firms, economies, and workers. It eliminates conflicting national regulations and trade barriers, as well as offering firms opportunity to sell their goods to all other EU members (Griffin & Pustay 2005).

The Internal Market of the European Union (EU) is one of Europe’s significant achievements and its greatest resource in times of modern globalisation. Since its creation in 1993, the Internal Market has opened itself more to competition, created jobs and reduced many trade barriers. It is the principal instrument for building a stronger and fairer economy in the EU. It assures the free movement of people, services, goods and capital, and by doing so, creates fresh opportunities for businesses and consumers. The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union adopts measures with the aim of combining national markets in a single market with the characteristics of a domestic market. The vision is that it should be as easy to trade between London and Madrid as it is between London and Manchester.

There have been various stages of economic growth between the countries of the European Union since 1958, when its history began. The pen-ultimate stage of its integration was a common or single market. Within a single market there a no tariffs between member countries and there are common external tariffs against countries outside the agreement. A single market is a strong form of integration involving the establishment of a common system of taxation, common laws relating to employment

In the aftermath of the 1957 Treaty , the European Economic Community (EEC) was established and customs barriers between the member states have been abolished. Member States throughout the Community, can “promote a harmonious development of economic activities, a continuous and balanced expansion, an increased stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living and closer relations between them”. Therefore, in order for a common market to be established between Member States, the Community enacted some legislative provisions which aimed to a true harmonization of laws; incorporate different legal systems under a basic legal framework. The main issue arising is whether these legal provisions in accordance with the case law, ensured the free movement of goods within this market.

One of the earliest legislative in EU is The First Council Directive 89/104/EEC (hereinafter Harmonisation Directive). The main objective if this legislation was to minimise the differences between the national trade mark systems. These differences present barriers to trade and affect free movement of goods and services, thereby hindering the development of a single market. The Harmonisation Directive does not disturb the policies on procedure and is restricted to guidelines on substance. Even though the Harmonisation Directive which covers a wide range of issues and is hailed by the harmonization enthusiasts, the part such as the national trade mark office’s ex officio managing of grounds for refusal are still absent and not settled by the Directive. Therefore, in terms of single market requirements, the directive’s target of harmonization could still not be described as being totally in conformity with the single market

One of the main objectives of the European Union (EU) is the establishment of the internal market, which shall consist of “area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured. The internal market is based upon a customs union achieved through the abolition of the imposition of customs duties and charges having an equivalent effect and the prohibition of discriminatory taxes on intra-EU imports. The internal market is enhanced by the provisions on free movement of workers, freedom of establishment, free movement of services, and free movement of capital. Whereas Articles 28 to 30 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) provide for the establishment of an EU common external tariff and the elimination of customs duties, Articles 34 and 35 of the TFEU (with exceptions under Article 36) go further, and prohibit quantitative restrictions and measures having equivalent effect. Taken together, Articles 28 to 32 and 34 to 36 serve to ensure the free movement of goods within the EU and to facilitate the operation of the internal market.

The internal market is a large trading unit with no internal barriers to trade. The creation of the internal market is one of the central purposes of the European Union. Article 26(2) of the Treaty of Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) stated that “internal market shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of the Treaties”. Under Article 26 of TFEU, four freedoms identified which are the free movement of persons, free movement of services, free movement of goods and free movement of capital. In our hypothetical situation, we will only be looking at free movement of persons and free movement of

The EEA agreement is a trade agreement which came into force on the 1st of January 1994, and was aimed at bringing together the EU member states and the three EEA EFTA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) into a single market known as the “Internal Market” (EFTA, 2017). The EEA agreement facilitates the free movement of goods, services, persons and capital throughout the 31 EEA states. It also encourages cooperation in other common issues such as education, the environment, social policy, tourism and culture, and consumer protection. When the agreement entered into force, there were 17 member states. 13 others joined in subsequent years. The focus of this paper will be on a subset of pioneering states. This provides for a reference

Within the EU itself the idea of building a Single (Common) Market for goods and services, without discrimination across national borders, underpins the idea that EU Competition Law and Policy are instrumental in achieving market integration. It would be wrong to think of EC competition policy merely as an instrument designed to bring about structural change. Rather, the promotion of competition as a process and an economic system is inextricably intertwined with the goal of market integration [and

The roots of the European Union can be traced back to the early 1950’s when a small number of countries made a decision to join together as a way to resolve any potential conflict nurture economic growth and common values across the continent. There was a desire to promote common values and membership was opened to all European countries. Since the inception the number of members has grown from a founding six countries to what we now know as the modern day EU with a current total of 28 countries with a further 8 countries under application review. In 1992, what was then a group of twelve countries, joined together to form the Customs Community Code which was eventually introduced in January 1993. The code effectively merged the individual customs regulations in to a single customs union.

The European Union (EU) was established in order to prevent the horrors of modern warfare, experienced by most of Europe during the World Wars of the 20th century, from ever ensuing again, by aiming to create an environment of trust with the countries of Europe cooperating in areas such as commerce, research and trade (Adams, 2001). The EU has evolved into an economic, trade, political and monetary alliance between twenty-eight European Member States. While not all Member States are in monetary union (i.e. share the currency of the euro), those that are form the ‘Euro-zone’ (Dinan, 2006). The EU can pass a number of types of legislation, with a regulation, act, or law, being the most powerful. Its ‘tricameral’ (European Union, 2007)

It’s a trade market agreement involving several EU nations where in goods, service and people can be moved across the member states without customs/border control . It also gives rights to citizens of member nations to travel, study, live and work anywhere in the EU countries.