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The European Union: Single Market and the euro

This resource is designed specifically for Units 30 and 31 of the Edexcel BTEC National qualification, 'Business and the Economic Environment' and 'European Business Operations'.

Aim:

The aim of this resource is to enhance your understanding of how European Union policy influences business activity. By the end, you should be able to:

• Identify how the EU has implemented the internal market
• Understand the impact of the single market on business activity
• Find out how well the single market has progressed since it was introduced
• Understand how the EU deals with non-compliance with internal market rules
• Research into the introduction of the single currency

Resources:

• PowerPoint Presentation - The European Union: Single Market and the euro [66 KB]

Activity:

Image copyright: European Commission Audiovisual Library

This does not seem a particularly 'exciting' subject, at least on the face of it. But building an internal market (as the EU calls the Single Market) is the main vehicle that was intended to launch Europe as an economic superpower. As member states rid themselves of obstacles to trade within the EU (what are called 'internal trade barriers'), companies would start to enjoy new economies of scale. The introduction of more cross-border competition would also wipe out inefficient firms.

The Single Market (or Internal Market, as it's known by the EU) has been in existence since 1993, but this was just the launch date for a process that is still underway.

The euro was adopted by most member states at the start of 2002, but the UK, Sweden and Denmark chose not to join. All EU member states are part of the Single Market.

Resources:

• Lisbon league table [PDF, 40 KB] - produced by Centre for European Reform (http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/the_lisbon_league_table.pdf) (http://www.cer.org.uk/)
• European Commission's 'Scorecard 2003' report - on the creation of the Internal Market [PDF, 1.2 MB] (http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/score/docs/score12/score12-printed_en.pdf)
• Biz/ed Notes on the Single Market and the euro - for details of these two central pillars of the EU. Use the links at the end of the resource to gather more information on the EU's internal market and single currency. (http://www.bized.co.uk/learn/economics/international/eu/notes/eu3.htm)