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The Internal Market

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Part of the book series: The European Union Series ((EUS))

Abstract

It is impossible to imagine the European Union without the internal market. The quest for a ‘common market’ was the prime rationale for the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in the first place. Thirty years later, the launch of the ‘1992 project’ marked a crucial turning point in EU decision-making. In subsequent years, the internal market — guaranteeing, in principle, the free movement of all goods, services, investment and people within the EU — accounted for as much as 70 per cent of all EU legislation. New policies for the environment, research, regional development and social policy were constructed to ‘flank’ the internal market, or to enhance or soften its impact.

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Notes

  1. British American Tobacco Co. Ltd. v. Commission (142/84) and R.J. Reynolds Industries Inc. v. Commission (156/84) became ‘joined cases’ (see Armstrong and Bulmer 1998: 115).

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  2. A second ‘multi-directive’ regulating standards for noise, anti-tampering measures, tyres and so on was passed in February 1997 after co-decision. The EP won a variety of concessions, although not enough to satisfy bikers’ groups which complained they had been ‘betrayed in conciliation’ (Milward 1997: 14).

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  3. See report on the Internal Market Council of 27 November 1997 in Monthly Report on Europe (EIS), December 1997, p.III.11–14.

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  4. Quoted in This Week in Europe, 7 March 1996, WE/8/96, European Commission Office, London.

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© 1999 John Peterson and Elizabeth Bomberg

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Peterson, J., Bomberg, E. (1999). The Internal Market. In: Decision-Making in the European Union. The European Union Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27507-6_4

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