The Single European Market
1. The Background of the Freedoms
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.
By the signing of the Treaty on European Union (TEU, formal for Maastricht Treaty) in 1992 and its entering into force in November 1993, the European Union was created. Since its inception in 1993, the Single Market has opened up economic and working opportunities that have transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of Europeans. It is one part of the first pillar of the European Union, as it belongs to the European Communities. The second pillar deals with Common Foreign and Social Policy and the third one with Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters.
The Single Market made access to larger markets possible and enabled cooperates to reorganise their activities. It made the removal of physical, technical and fiscal barriers, as well as the liberalisation of internal competition through strict competition policies possible. In other words, the Single Market serves as a base for the freedom of goods, services, people, establishment and capital.
2. The Five European Freedoms of Movement
2.1 Free Movement of Goods
The Treaty on European Union deals with five different types of freedom in the EU.
First of all, there is the free movement of goods. The term implies that national barriers to the free movement of goods within the EU are removed. In Articles 28 to 30 of the European...
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