The Internal Market

Abstract This chapter investigates the European Union's competence and substantive rules relating to the internal market. The internal market is defined as 'an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of the Treaties' (Article 26(2) TFEU). The functioning of the internal market is to be ensured in the sense that all practices impeding the establishment of the internal market are to be eliminated as far as possible. Before the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the EC Treaty referred in this connection to the establishment of a 'common market', without defining that notion. In 1986, the Single European Act supplemented the task of establishing and ensuring the common market with the aim of progressively establishing an 'internal market' by the end of 1992, defined as an 'area without internal frontiers'. At the same time, the EC Treaty still referred to the 'common market' as a frame of reference for the compatibility of activities assessed under the Treaty provisions on competition and State aid. The Lisbon Treaty has replaced the words 'common market' throughout by 'internal market', which leaves the internal market as the sole expression of the objective of market integration pursued by the Union.