European Single Market

The European Single Market is an economic area built around free movement of goods, services, capital, and people among participating countries, supported by shared rules and enforcement.

Four Freedoms of the European Union: The EU principles guaranteeing movement of goods, services, capital, and people across member states. These four movements define the market’s central commitments.
Treaty of Rome: The 1957 treaty that established the European Economic Community and set out a programme for a common market. It launched the treaty-based project that developed into the Single Market.
CE marking: A marking indicating that a product meets applicable EU requirements for sale in the European Economic Area. It helps compliant products reach markets across participating countries.
European Union: A political and economic union of European countries governed by shared institutions and treaties. The Single Market is one of the EU’s core economic arrangements, not the whole union.
Mutual recognition: The principle that a product or qualification accepted under one jurisdiction’s rules may be accepted in another. It lets many goods circulate without identical national regulations.
Single European Act: A 1986 treaty reform that set a 1992 deadline for completing the European internal market. It gave the market project a timetable and expanded decision-making by majority vote.
Posted Workers Directive: An EU directive setting employment protections for workers temporarily sent by employers to another member state. It addresses labor conditions when services cross borders with posted employees.
European Free Trade Association: An organization of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland that supports free trade and related cooperation. Its members have different relationships to EU market rules and participation.
Harmonisation of law: The process of aligning laws or standards across jurisdictions through common rules. EU legislation aligns national requirements where mutual recognition is insufficient.
European Economic Area: An arrangement extending much of the EU internal market to Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. It includes non-EU countries in much of the market while excluding areas such as customs union.

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