Constructing a European market: Standards, regulation and governance

Book abstract:

This book examines the regulatory strategies and institutional arrangements used by the European Union to create a single market in goods. Perspectives are provided from political scientists, economists and from the fields of law and business to provide a wide ranging historically based account of how the single product market in Europe has come into being.

Following a short introduction the book begins with 'Regulating Europe: The Political Economy of Market Building'. This outlines the conceptual and analytic background to the book addressing the intersection of liberalisation and re-regulation. Chapter 3, 'Removing Barriers to Trade: Empirical Evidence', focuses on the costs of market fragmentation in Europe. Chapter 4, 'Harmonisation: The Slow Strategy Forward', examines the efforts in the 1960s and 1970s to tackle barriers to trade through harmonisation. Chapter 5, 'The Intersection of Law and Markets', builds on the previous chapter, highlighting the role of law in fostering integration. This is followed by three chapters that detail the impact of legal rulings in creating regulatory reform. These are 'Regulatory Reform and the Single Market Programme'; 'Setting European Standards: Politics, Rules and Norms'; and 'Case Studies in Standard Negotiations'. Chapter 9, 'Market Management: Assessing and Evaluating the Standards Process', discusses shortcomings of the new approach and current reforms to the process. Chapter 10, 'Strategic Firms in an Integrated Market', examines the impact of market integration on corporate policies and strategies followed by a conclusion discussing the difficulties of reaching agreement between the interests of government, business and society.

Michelle Egan is Assistant Professor at the School of International Service, American University, Washington DC.