The European Union came into being due to the integration of 27 European countries over a period of fifty years – a longtime thought which culminated into a scheme started immediately after the world War-II and got realized after five decades of deliberations and negotiations among the member states. The EU has now transformed into a Single European Market (SEM) thereby operating upon the dynamics of an Internal Market.The Internal Market rests upon the liberalized trade among the European nations with no internal physical, technical or fiscal barriers for achieving the objectives of economic and social progress and improvement in the living and working conditions of the citizens of the EU.
? The Internal Market basically focuses upon socio-economic welfare of the EU citizens . This has motivated the European Community Trade Law to give benchmarks for achieving the progress towards greater harmonization of regulations and procedures for the EU member states.The statutes of the Community Trade law strive to remove the legislative anomalies, present in divergent legislations, which have become conflicting or obsolete. The Law further regulates the activities of the Internal Market for achieving a common commercial policy in the field of agriculture, fisheries and transport. It removes obstacles to free movement of services, capital, people and goods through a common Custom Union and harmonized tariff thereby creating European Monetary Union (EMU) for the EU citizens.The Law also strengthens the policies safeguarding the intellectual property rights, reinforcing environmental protection and creating better employment opportunities in the EU.
? The short-term economic objectives of the Internal Market have greatly been achieved by increased mobility and availability of skilled European human resource and removal of physical barriers across Europe for liberalized trade.The mid-term economic objectives focus on substantial employment creation , better balance of payments, removal of technical arriers for mutual recognition of national laws, sharing of technology and standardization of European financial and procurement practices and educational certifications. The long-term economic objectives tend to achieve better income distribution, increased funding for research, accelerated GDP growth and lower inflation rate, though some critics of integration point finger towards higher cost of living as well due to introduction of the single EURO currency in the EU.?A higher rate of economic growth, increased production levels and coordination of monetary and fiscal policies for sustainable development in the Internal Market are considered significant advantages of integration. The effect of these advantages is seemingly trickling down to the international community as EU has 31% of its trade share in the global market.
Increased trade between the EU and other global business players has made the international business more competitive in terms of EU as a single economic entity.
