Commission Approach To Internal Market

The major starting-point was undoubtedly the Commission's White Paper on the completion of the internal market. (White Paper 1985) In this document the Commission presented a thorough study of the various barriers which stood in the way of having a genuinely single market, as was (at least to some extent if not entirely) envisaged by the original EEC Treaty. The most ingenious aspect of the White Paper, however, was that the Commission managed to propose a list of about 300 measures which would enable the Community to complete its internal market, accompanied by a detailed timetable. The Commission's approach was endorsed by the European Council, leading to the amendments of the EEC Treaty introduced by the Single European Act. It would go beyond the scope of this introduction to analyze these amendments. Suffice it to say that according to Article 7a, EC Treaty, 'internal market shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty'. The same provision also constitutionalized the target date of 31 December 1992. The internal market programme has been surprisingly successful. The large majority of the measures of which the programme was made up have been adopted in time. Admittedly, there are areas which lag behind (such as free movement of persons). Moreover, it has not always been possible to maintain the rigorous approach originally advocated by the Commission, and a lot remains to be done with regard to implementing the adopted measures at national level. Nevertheless, the essence of the internal market is in place, which finds perhaps its most spectacular expression in the complete abolition of controls at intra-Community borders on the movement of goods.