A Political and Economic Dictionary of Western Europe, First Edition
Single European Market (SEM)
The Single European Market (SEM) is a single economic area in the European Union free of national barriers to trade. The aim of the SEM was to improve the economic efficiency of the European Community (EC), intensify competition, and reduce the costs of trade. The objective of establishing an internal or common market was set out by the Treaty of Rome, but limited progress was made in the 1960s and 1970s.
A programme to complete core aspects of the SEM was drawn up in a European Commission White Paper in 1985 and completed in 1992. The White Paper identified 300 measures that needed to be taken to complete the single market and these were translated into 282 items of legislation. The measures related to the removal of physical, technical and fiscal barriers to trade in order to promote the freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and labour.
The impetus to complete the SEM in 1985 was a response to lobbying from the European business community, the policy initiative of the European Commission and a shift in ideological orientations of national governments in favour of the market. It was motivated by a common concern that the economies of the EC were falling behind those of the USA, Japan and newly industrializing countries in south-east Asia. The Single European Act provided political and institutional reforms to the institutions of the EC to complete the SEM.
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