European community internal market technical legislation - a critical review of the processes in the context of the free movement of goods

This research project was initiated in response to concerns held by the author on aspects of the European Community (EC) internal market. These concerns applied particularly to what was understood at the time to be the perceptions of EC internal market practitioners; their perceptions on the process of EC internal market technical legislative change and on how well the EC internal market was functioning. A literature review was undertaken to determine if, and if so where, the EC internal market technical legislative change process was defined and to determine which organisations were the important players in the process. The literature review was then extended to determine more about the players in the process and the information exchanges between the defined process and individuals, such as EC internal market practitioners, having a legitimate interest in the process. Also within the literature review the views of other commentators are noted and assessed. A methodological review was undertaken. This review gave rise to the formulation of a structured interview that was applied to a purposive sample of EC internal market practitioners. Two main areas were examined via the structured interview. The first was the knowledge of the overall EC internal market technical legislative change process and of its main players. The second area was the perception of the completeness of the functioning of the EC internal market possessed by EC internal market practitioners. This research concludes that there are a number of flaws in the treaty establishing the European Community; this is the treaty that includes the high level description of the EC internal market technical legislative process. One of these flaws particularly affects the EC internal market technical legislative process. The research also concludes that the application of the treaty is not consistent and that the knowledge of the EC internal market technical legislative process exhibited by EC internal market practitioners is poor. Based on the conclusions a number of recommendations are made.