Slovenian Ten-Year Experience with the EU Internal Market

Abstract:

On May 1st, 2014 Slovenia, together with nine other Member States, completed their first decade in the EU – which also entails a decade of adjustments to the principles of the internal market. Based on EU Court of Justice case law, Slovenia is not among the most serious of offenders of internal market rules for it was found to be in breach of these on a single occasion. Even so, practice shows that companies as well as state authorities are often poorly informed about EU internal market rules, which creates barriers nobody is acting against. Examples are numerous in various fields of the internal market and prove that Slovenian businesses as well as authorities are often not truly aware of the internal market yet, but also authorities of other Member States frequently do not regard Slovenia as a participant of the internal market, thereby creating barriers that are not compatible with the internal market.