Week 1 Flashcards
Why an internal market?
- Facilitate economic growth by allowing free movement of goods.
- Intended to prevent economic nationalism and promote European unity trough economic interdependence.
Harmonised model
Harmonized Model: A single, EU-wide regulation governs all Member States, reducing compliance costs but potentially ignoring national preferences.
For each issue, there is only one rule, which has been produced by the EU.
- Centralized authority
- ensures that products meet the same standards everywhere facilitating a fully integrated market.
Host Country
Host Country Control: Each host country enforces its regulations for imported goods tempered by a non-discrimination rule against other Member States.
The rules of the country where the economic activity takes place apply.
- preserves autonomy but limits integration
- allows each MS to apply its own rules to foreign products thereby maintaining high regulatory autonomy.
Home country
Home Country Control: The rules of the product’s origin apply, relying on mutual recognition across Member States.
This model presumes high inter-country trust, with host states only intervening under specific exceptions.
- redistributes sovereignity
- allows that goods legally produced and marketed in their country of origin can be freely sold across the EU without needing to adapt to the host country’s rules.
- prioritizes the integration of the internal market reducing barriers and allowing for scale efficiencies.
New approach
Harmonization would be focused on those national rules that survived the direct application of the treaty.
If the host country had recognize the product from the home country, there is no need to harmonization. Only if the host country opposes to the importation its a need.
EU law allows host states to impose regulations to safeguard public interest a deviation from strict home-state control which is usually reserved for secondary law.
What are the characteristics of Art. 114 TFEU?
- Provides to the EU Parliament and the Council trought the ordinary legislative procedure to adopt measures.
- To establish or improve internal market.
- The power is residual and could be exercise when no other specific legal basis exists.
- To address trade obstacles or distortions in competetion.
- Only to eliminate obstacles to trade.
Case examples of Art. 114
- Tobacco Advertising Case: The Court invalidated a directive because it lacked connection to internal market objectives.
- Swedish Match Case: Upheld a directive ilustrating the permissible reach of Art. 114 in regulating to prevent market distortions.
Exceptions to Art. 114
- Its allowed to MS to maintain or introduce divergent national standards: (a) justified by substantial public interests, (b) notified to the Commission
Types of Harmonization
- Total harmonization: Involves EU rules that entirely replace national laws on specific matters, leaving no room for MS variations.
- Minimum harmonization: Sets a baseline allowing the MS to enforce stricter standards if they choose.
Principle of Conferral
- The EU authority is limited by the Principle of conferral.
- This principle ensures that MS retain autonomy unless EU competence is established.
- Limits EU law’s reach to only areas necessary for market functionality.
Internal Market provisions (Categories)
- Negative law (Art. 34 and 36): Involves removing barriers that restrict trade or mobility. MS may not hinder trade. When EU:
a. Invalidates a national barriers.
b. Prohibits MS from implementing barriers.
It directly removes national barriers without needing new EU legislation.
- Positive law (Art. 114): Refers to the creation of EU wide rules or standards. When EU:
a. Established a procedural standards, adding EU-level governance structures.
b. Creates authorizations which represent an EU-level action - Decorative:
Van Gend en Loos Case
Established the primacy of EU law over national laws in areas governed by the Treaty, ensuring that Member States could not undermine the rules essential to the internal market.
Ambulanz Glockner Case
Activities with a commercial or partially commercial nature fall within the scope of EU market regulation
Mutual recognition
- Principle of EU law that combines elements of all three models by mandating that MS recognize other countries’ standards (home country) while allowing for justified national standards in specific cases (host country).
- Balances market access with regulatory autonomy, minimizing the need for harmonization.
- Is enshirend in EU Treaties and applies across various domains, for instance such as product standards.
- It enable access to MS markets by limiting national restrictions.
- Enables cross-border integration while balancing national sovereignty.
- Upholds market efficiently and legal diversity
Application of Mutual Recognition within the Internal Market
- Reducing regulatory barriers: Addressed regulatory diversity across MS by allowing products approved in one MS to be accepted in another without additional modifications or testing.
- Provides a middle ground for regulatory approaches: Applying state-of-origin laws with certain host country public interest exceptions.
Cassis de Dijon Case (Principle of Mutual Recognition)
Facts: The producer of French liquor faced an issue. In France, beverages with less than 20 percent alcohol were classified as liquor; however, in Germany, they were not.
Court: Protection of consumer could justifiy a barrier to trade, but in this casa Germany could protect the consumer in less trade restrictive manners, such as labeling.
Established that goods legally produced and marketed in one MS should be accepted across the EU.
Requires host states to recognize foreign standards unless justified by legitimate public interests.
Initially the EU’s approach focused on harmonization but mutual recognition became prominent as a more flexible alternative.
AH Case
- The Court: In the absence of EU law MS may regulate a strict rule of zero tolerance of a substance.
- In so far relevant Community rules do not cover certain pesticides MS may regulate in way which may vary from one country to another according the climate conditions, normal diet and their state of health.
