eunion1-4, Exercise 1: The single market programme

Model answer:

Tariffs between members had already gone, but goods, services, workers and money still faced other barriers: differing technical rules, customs paperwork, national monopolies, and professional qualifications that other countries did not recognise. The programme, backed by Jacques Delors, listed around 300 measures to remove these by the end of 1992.

Mutual recognition is the principle (drawn from the 1979 Cassis de Dijon case) that a product legally sold in one member state should in general be allowed in the others, unless a country can show a strong reason to block it. It avoided having to agree one rule for every product.