The European Union has positively affected the European economies by creating a single market among the participating countries.
Explanation:
Two of the main original objectives of the European Economic Community were the development of a common market, later renamed the Single Market, and a customs union between the Member States. The single market entails the free movement of goods, capital, people and services within the EU, while the customs union involves the application of a common external tariff to all goods entering the common market. Once goods have been admitted to the market, they can not be subject to customs duties, discriminatory taxes or import quotas. Non-EU countries such as Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland participate in the single market but not in the customs union. Half of the trade in the EU is covered by the bloc's homogeneous legislation.
The free movement of capital has the objective of allowing the movement of investments, such as purchases of goods and actions between countries. Until the establishment of economic and monetary union, the development of capital provisions was slow. Following the Maastricht Treaty, there was a rapid development of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on this freedom, which was initially neglected. The free movement of capital is the only measure which is also granted to non-members
The free movement of persons means that EU citizens can move freely between Member States to live, work, study or retire in another country. This required the reduction of administrative formalities and recognition of the professional qualifications of other States.
The free movement of services enables self-employed persons to move between Member States to provide services on a temporary or permanent basis. Although services account for 60 to 70 percent of GDP, legislation in this area is not as well developed as in other areas. This gap has been addressed by the recently adopted Directive on services in the common market, which aims to liberalize the provision of cross-border services. According to the treaty, the provision of services is a residual freedom which only applies if there is no other freedom being exercised.
