From Common to Single Market

Testo disponibile solo in lingua inglese.
The regulation of competition and the «common market» concept of the Treaty of Rome were clearly conceived in a perspective that was still prevalently internationalist. The aim was exclusively to ensure the free circulation of production factors among member states. Subsequently there was an increasingly marked tendency to attenuate internationalist premises in favour of the «single market» notion. Hence the opening up to competitors on the so-called public and service sector markets. This second formulation is the one which prevails in the Treaty of Maastricht. Free competition has thus become a parameter to measure the legitimacy on the various regulations which influence markets, national markets included. Member states are still free to make use of undifferentiated aid – aid, that is, available in broad sectors of the single national systems. Since this type of aid risks provoking distortions and competitive advantages, the home country principle has to intervene with its built-in mechanisms of normative competition.