Grin - Battle of Single European Market

This book studies the history of the single, or internal, market of the European Union since its beginnings after the Second World War until the end of 2000. The perspective is pluridisciplinary and incorporates several dimensions: historical, political, economic, legal and sociological. Based on several interviews and other sources, the book aims to be the most complete synthesis of one of the major achievements of European integration.

In particular, the author asks: What is the single European market (SEM) and how has it evolved over the years? How does the SEM work? Who have been the stakeholders of the SEM? What has been the articulation between the SEM and the other components of the European integration process? How have economists analyzed and assessed the SEM since its beginnings? What has been the power of economic thought?

This fundamental and timely publication will be of interest to all those concerned with the future of every aspect of Europe.

Gilles Grin is a scientific assistant at the Swiss Federal Office for Education and Science in Berne. He also worked as a consultant for the European Commission. He holds a Bachelors degree from the University of Lausanne, Masters degrees from Yale University and the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.

www.keganpaul.com

KEGAN PAUL EUROPEAN STUDIES SERIES

THE BATTLE OF THE SINGLE EUROPEAN MARKET

Gilles Grin

SEX WORK, MOBILITY AND HEALTH IN EUROPE

Sophie Day and Helen Ward

First published in 2003 by

Kegan Paul Limited

Reprinted in 2004 with corrections

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Columbia University Press

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Gilles Grin, 2003

Printed in Great Britain

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ISBN: 0-7103-0938-4

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

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To Jean-Paul Grin and Pierre du Bois

Welcome to the battle of the single European market. The process of contemporary European integration was initiated in the wake of the Second World War and has deepened considerably since its heroic beginnings. This process has mainly followed an economic path but it has always been guided by both economic and political concerns. Our investigation into the single or internal market of the European Union, which is the object of this work, lies at the core of the integration process and is very widely hailed as one of its most precious jewels. It would indeed have been most difficult, if not impossible, to adopt a single currency, the euro, without the groundbreaking work accomplished within the framework of the completion of the single market. In this work we will deal in great detail with the definition of our object of investigation. This is not an easy task because the single European market has been a dynamic concept and nobody has yet provided a final and unanimously approved definition of it. We endeavor to adopt a clear and coherent definition of it in this work without oversimplifying the complexities of real life: definitions and modeling have to adapt to the real world and not the other way around.

At this point it suffices to say that the single market is a sui generis legal order based on the rule of law and administered by a complex machinery that aims to provide a number of basic freedoms and to establish some general rules while taking into account a number of policy objectives. The basic freedoms of the single market can be enumerated in the following way: free movement of goods, free provision of services, right of establishment, free movement of workers, free movement of citizens and free movement of capital. These six freedoms aim to allow free movement of the products of economic activity and of their production factors but also and this did not appear in the original Treaty of Rome which established the European Economic Community of European citizens in a general sense. The single market also provides for a number of general rules for economic agents and for public authorities. Rules for economic agents concern taxation, competition, company law, and intellectual and industrial property. Rules for public authorities have mainly to do with public procurement and state aids. The single market must be analytically distinguished from the various Community flanking policies but it still takes into account a number of common policy objectives. This explains why the single market acquis communautaire incorporates some measures pertaining to the social, environmental, trans-European networks, energy, public health and consumer policies. The process of market reform may also be considered as a component of the single market. Since the Single European Act came into force on July 1st 1987, the completion of the single market has taken place within the framework of the establishment of an area without internal frontiers. Now, thanks to European integration, internal frontiers have indeed largely become a thing of the past even if some qualifications thereupon are nonetheless required.

This study focuses primarily on the years from 1985 to 2000, but two introductory chapters lay the ground by presenting more briefly the period ranging from the end of the Second World War to the projects re-launch in 1985. That year is indeed fundamental for the single market and for European integration more generally and saw the entry into function of a new Commission presided by Jacques Delors, the adoption of a comprehensive program to complete the internal market the famous White Paper and the first major overhaul of the European Treaties leading to the signature of the Single European Act in February 1986. The title of the study contains the word battle. There is more than a splash headline to this choice because the completion of the single market has in no way been an easy task. Even if virtually everybody agreed on the desirability of bringing about more cohesion between the Communitys Member States and of uniting their hitherto fragmented markets, the implementation of the White Paper broke many national protective devices and led to an encroachment of numerous firms on the various individual markets. What has happened in the Community since 1985 has been spectacular and was not self-evident at the beginning of the process. Even if not everything is perfect today, progress has been impressive. We may hence say that we are studying a success story in this work. The term battle is also appropriate with regard to economic thought. Economists and other actors participating in the intellectual debate underpinning and as the result of realizations in the policy field did not agree on everything and sometimes not even on the premises of analysis.