Subject files - The Internal Market - Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

The internal market (also referred to as the Single Market [SM]) - an area of free movement for goods, people, services and capital - is at the heart of the European project. To bring this into being, IMCO has been extremely active to remove technical, regulatory, and legal barriers within the Union. The creation of the internal market encouraged EU Member States to liberalise the monopolistic public utility markets that had been protected until that point. By aligning their national laws, Member States set about harmonising rules and standards within the EU.