18. The Single Market

Abstract

All books in this flagship series contain carefully selected substantial extracts from key cases, legislation, and academic debate, providing students with a stand-alone resource. The single market is central to the EU and is still its principal economic rationale. This chapter discusses the forms and techniques of economic integration, the limits of integration prior to 1986, and the subsequent steps taken to complete the single market. There is both a substantive and an institutional dimension to this story. In substantive terms, it is important to understand the economic dimension to the single market. In institutional terms, a subtle mix of legislative, administrative, and judicial initiatives has furthered evolution of the single market. The UK version contains a further section analysing the general structure of the discourse concerning future trade relations between the EU and the UK post-Brexit.