Pelkmans, Jacques --- "Mutual Recognition: Economic and Regulatory Logic in Goods and Services" [2012] ELECD 671; in Eger, Thomas; Schäfer, Hans-Bernd (eds), "Research Handbook on the Economics of European Union Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Economics of European Union Law

Editor(s): Eger, Thomas; Schäfer, Hans-Bernd

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849801003

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Mutual Recognition: Economic and Regulatory Logic in Goods and Services

Author(s): Pelkmans, Jacques

Number of pages: 33

Extract:

6 Mutual recognition: economic and regulatory
logic in goods and services
Jacques Pelkmans*


1 INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE

Mutual recognition (MR) is one of the most appreciated innovations of the EU. The
idea is that one can pursue market integration, indeed `deep' market integration, while
respecting `diversity' amongst the participating countries. Put differently, in pursuing
`free movement' for goods in the EU internal market and hence going beyond merely
removing tariffs and quotas, mutual recognition facilitates free movement by disciplining
the nature and scope of `regulatory barriers', whilst allowing some degree of regulatory
discretion for the EU Member States. Compared with alternative options of `deepening'
market integration, this solution is attractive and, in principle, welfare increasing. Mutual
recognition might also be appreciated because, in avoiding EU regulation, it tends to
limit centralisation, while facilitating `regulatory competition' between Member States
and, possibly, lowering the costs of the incredible regulatory heterogeneity business faces
in the EU internal market. Nevertheless, mutual recognition is many things to many
people.1 The present contribution will not cast the net so wide. The focus will be on the
successful and far-reaching examples of the EU internal market for goods and services.
The chapter attempts to explain (1) the rationale and logic of mutual recognition in
the EU internal goods market (Section 2), (2) its working in actual practice in the EU
for more than 25 years, culminating in a qualitative benefit/cost analysis (Section 4) and
(3) its recent improvement in terms of `governance' in the ...