Free Movement of Goods

Free Movement of Goods

The internal market of the European Union (EU), also known as the European Single Market is a single market that is designed to protect and guarantee the free movement of goods, services, capital and people (including workers). These are known as the ‘four freedoms’.

The development of the free movement of goods came during the 1980s, when the European Economic Community (EEC) as it was then known , struggled to enforce the free movement of goods that had been established in principle. As the economy of the EEC lagged behind the rest of the world the Delors Commission in 1985 sought to relaunch the common market in order to compete more effectively and led to the implementation of the Single European Act, which was the first major revision since the Treaty of Rome in 1957.

Landmark Developments

One of the most significant developments was the adoption of Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This aimed to harmonise and integrate laws and standards.

The European Commission also relied heavily upon the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which had to apply and interpret the recent Article. One of the more significant decisions of the ECJ came in the case of Cassis de Dijon, whereby member states were obliged to recognise goods that had been legally produced in another member state. However, restrictions still applied if a member state could justify the restrictions. The Cassis mandatory requirements test was therefore established to overcome barriers in trade restrictions.

Removing Barriers

In 1997 the Amsterdam Treaty abolished physical barriers between all member states, allowing the trade of goods to be further uninterrupted movement of goods across the borders of member states.

Furthermore, Article 30 TFEU abolished the gathering of customs duties at the borders of member states, for goods produced in other member states. The purpose of this was to ‘ensure normal conditions of competition and to remove all restrictions of a fiscal nature capable of hindering the free movement of goods within the Common Market’, see Case 27/67 Fink-Frucht.