Enforcement in the Internal Market

Harris, Stephen (1998) Enforcement in the Internal Market. EIPSACOPE, 1998 (1). pp. 1-4.

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Abstract

[From the Introduction]. A businesswoman in the USA telephoned the author in London late one evening a couple of years ago to complain that French Customs officials had seized a consignment of helmets made by her company for a customer in France.... Later, another (British) PPE manufacturer complained that having had his goods tested and the CE marking affixed in accordance with that directive, he could not sell them as they were more expensive than items still freely available on the market which did not conform with the directive. Sadly, these examples are not unique. They demonstrate one of the major problems being encountered as the Internal Market (formerly called the Single Market, ‘the market’), which opened formally for business on 1 January 1993, settles into place. Politicians and administrators who thought their work was done when the directives they had painstakingly negotiated were transposed into national law, found that the real work only began when directives were implemented in practice and manufacturers and others started to comply with their requirements. They were surprised to find that words and phrases agreed after lengthy debate, were interpreted differently as those affected by them started to make and supply products in accordance with the relevant directive(s).

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