Abstract
Populism and protectionism are negatively affecting the EU Single Market, and this trend is increasing. Better use of and improving Single Market governance could contribute to preserving the economic accomplishments of the EU for the near future. Based on a number of concrete cases and years of experience of working on protectionism we present a number of concrete proposals: better use of notification procedures for national laws on products and services; introducing suspensive injunction to Internal Market law; link EU funding with upholding the Rule of law; and make infringement procedures more automatic and transparent.
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- 1.
Edelman (2018): In the yearly global Trust Barometer of Edelman, correspondents have been asked about their trust in four institutions: NGOs, business, government and media. This year correspondents have identified media as the least trusted institution.
- 2.
The EuroCommerce online membership survey was carried out in December 2017 and January 2018. The e-survey was sent to all member contacts of EuroCommerce and received 140 replies which represents a 15% response rate.
- 3.
- 4.
Eurostat (2017).
- 5.
Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser (2017).
- 6.
Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser (2017).
- 7.
Tony Blair Institute (2017).
- 8.
Reuters (2017).
- 9.
New York Times (2018).
- 10.
Financial Times (2018).
- 11.
Guardian (2017).
- 12.
NRC (2017).
- 13.
Le Monde (2017), 10.6 million votes were cast for Marie Le Pen in the second round of the presidential elections in 2017, in the second round of 2015 Front National received in the regional elections 6.8 million votes.
- 14.
Spiegel (2017).
- 15.
Economist (2018).
- 16.
For example, FPÖ in Austrian government since 2017 and from 2000 to 2007, PVV supporting minority government in the Netherlands from 2010 to 2012, PS in Finland from 2015 to 2017 and its splinter Finns Party in the government coalition until today.
- 17.
Pew Research Center (2017).
- 18.
World Bank Group (2016).
- 19.
The Globe and Mail (2018).
- 20.
Fondation Robert Schuman (2018).
- 21.
Eurostat, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/International_trade_in_goods, last visited 21 May 2018.
- 22.
Central and Eastern Europe covering in this paper Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
- 23.
- 24.
Visegrad Group (2018).
- 25.
The two leading newspapers Lidové noviny and Mladá fronta DNES are owned by the current Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
- 26.
European Commission (2017a).
- 27.
European Parliament (2017a).
- 28.
www.eurocommerce.eu, search for ‘Single Market Barriers Overview’ under the tab resources. The overview is regularly updated.
- 29.
Budapest Business Journal (2016).
- 30.
Erixon and Georgieva (2016) is an interesting read, as it discusses if the Single Market delivered anything at all and if current harmonisation policies are creating barriers instead of removing them.
- 31.
European Parliament (2017b).
- 32.
European Court of Auditors (2016).
- 33.
OECD (2016).
- 34.
European Commission (2018a).
- 35.
HVG (2016).
- 36.
European Commission (2014a).
- 37.
OECD (2018).
- 38.
European Commission (2017b).
- 39.
European Commission (2017c).
- 40.
The so-called “EU pilot” procedure used to be a procedure preceding the formal infringement investigation.
- 41.
European Commission (2014b).
- 42.
European Commission (2017d).
- 43.
European Parliament (2018a).
- 44.
European Parliament (2018b).
- 45.
Politico (2018).
- 46.
European Commission (2018b).
- 47.
Council of Europe (2017).
- 48.
European Commission (2017b).
- 49.
- 50.
- 51.
Beca Engineering, Case C-285/15, EU:C:2016:295, paragraph 37, Ince, Case C-336/14, EU:C:2016:72, paragraphs 67–68.
- 52.
For example TRIS notification 2016/318/BG.
- 53.
For example TRIS notification 2017/199/HU.
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Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the Internal Market.
- 55.
European Commission (2017e).
- 56.
EuroCommerce (2015).
- 57.
European Commission (2017f).
- 58.
Council of the European Union (2017).
- 59.
European Parliament (2017c).
- 60.
European Commission (2018b).
- 61.
http://ec.europa.eu/budget/figures/interactive/index_en.cfm, webpage visited on 21 May 2018.
- 62.
Even though people often refer to the EU or ‘Brussels’ as acting entities, both are nothing of the sort. It is among others the institutional dynamic between the Council, Commission and European Parliament that leads to EU actions. In that sense, all policies seen as adverse by the Member States are approved by at least a qualified majority or by unanimity by those same Member States in one way or the other.
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Bruggeman, I.G.J., Verschueren, C. (2019). Protectionism in Central and Eastern Europe and the EU Internal Market: the case of retail. In: Heusel, W., Rageade, JP. (eds) The Authority of EU Law. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-58841-3_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-58841-3_14
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