Vos, Ellen; Weimer, Maria --- "Differentiated integration or uniform regime? National derogations from EU internal market measures" [2017] ELECD 399; in De Witte, Bruno; Ott, Andrea; Vos, Ellen (eds), "Between Flexibility and Disintegration" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 304

Book Title: Between Flexibility and Disintegration

Editor(s): De Witte, Bruno; Ott, Andrea; Vos, Ellen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783475889

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Differentiated integration or uniform regime? National derogations from EU internal market measures

Author(s): Vos, Ellen; Weimer, Maria

Number of pages: 32

Abstract/Description:

The creation of one internal market in which products may freely circulate has been central to the EU’s integration project from its very start. Article 26(2) TFEU thus stipulates that this internal market will embrace ‘an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured’. Over the years, this internal market has evolved on the basis of various features of different integration models such as host country control, home country control and harmonisation. The latter relates particularly to the rules established with regard to the creation of the internal market. The attractiveness of harmonisation lies in the fact that EU rules can also take into account interests other than purely economic ones, such as the protection of human health and the environment, as is expressly stipulated in Article 114(3) TFEU. Inevitably, however, there is a tension between harmonised rules and respect for diversity. In politically sensitive matters, it may therefore appear difficult to find a compromise and to adopt EU-wide measures. Moreover it may appear difficult within the internal market measures to offer the appropriate level of protection of, for example, environment and human health. On the other hand, it is also true that the possibility for Member States to create and/or maintain diverse conditions has for a long time been part of the EU integration process. Accordingly, EU law provides for several mechanisms of legal differentiation and flexibility.