Common Market, The
Common Market, The
The term common market has multiple connotations in the European Union (EU). It is a term that was once used as a synonym for the European Economic Community (EEC), one of the organizations that evolved into the European Union. It is also a term that refers to the market integration of the participating states within the EU. In this respect the terms single market, internal market, or single European market are now more widely used.
Following the end of World War II a central goal of politicians in Western Europe was the maintenance of peace, and particularly the desire to ensure that Germany would no longer threaten this peace. Of critical importance here were the views of Jean Monnet, a French civil servant. Monnet believed that the best way to secure lasting peace between France and Germany was by institutionalizing cooperation between the states. This plan led to the creation of an organization that linked the coal and steel industries and markets of France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
Monnet also believed that integration between France and Germany, and other states that were willing to participate, would not stop at coal and steel but would spill over into other sectors. This proved to be the case when the original six member states signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957 and created the EEC.
A central element of the Treaty of Rome was the common market, which remains one of the major components of the EU. The common market aimed to link the economies of the participating states by creating a customs union (that is, removing internal tariff barriers and creating a common external tariff for goods coming from outside the common market), by approximating economic policies, and by allowing the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital inside the participating states.
The customs union was put in place by 1968 but the other elements of the common market have proved to be more contentious and slower in developing. The members of the EU made a renewed commitment to the creation of a common market in 1986 when they signed the Single European Act (SEA). The centerpiece of the SEA was a commitment to remove all barriers to the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital by the target date of December 31, 1992. As in the case of the earlier Treaty of Rome, this target was not met and indeed considerable gaps remain in the common market. People cannot, for example, move freely around all of the twenty-seven EU member states in search of work. There has, nevertheless, been remarkable progress toward the completion of the common market, especially when compared to the situation in 1950. In the 2000s, the European Union has a highly integrated economic market that contains more than 450 million consumers. It is a powerful trading bloc and many non-European businesses adjust their products or working patterns in order to comply with economic regulations established within the EU.
SEE ALSO Euro, The; European Union; Tariffs; Unions
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Monnet, Jean. 1976. Memoirs. London: Collins.
Young, Alasdair R. 2005. The Single Market: A New Approach to Policy. In Policy-Making in the European Union, eds. Helen Wallace, William Wallace, and Mark A. Pollack, 93–112. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
John B. Sutcliffe