The Single European Market - Essay Example

The Single European Market While it can be argued that the single market was basically completed in 1992 following the enactment of various policies in place, much of the project is yet to be completed. Indeed, with the present challenges realized in the process, it is becoming more impossible to complete the Single European Market (Crouch, 2010). Efforts to realize the European single market continue to face a lot of challenges. Language barriers amongst the member countries continue to present a lot of challenges to the realization of a single unified market.

Moreover, it is realized that different countries in Europe have varying levels of economic development and this presents a challenge to a single market creation. In this regard, different countries have different economic objectives hence the realization of a single market might not really become practical and unacceptable to all the member countries. The member countries of the EU are always in economic competition against each other. In this regard, these countries are at times forced to follow their own national visions and interests which totally go against the spirit of the realization of a single market.

The national interests of the countries appear to be more important than the good of the EU. The directives of the EU toward the achievement of the single market are often interpreted to be blatant instructions on what should be done. As such, countries such as Britain have always ignored much of these instructions and adopted their own versions of economic development. For instance, it is much difficult for British companies to effectively compete with other companies from countries with lesser demands.

The differences in populations have a lot of implications on the supply and demand for various goods and services in the region. A single market in this regard would put some companies at a disadvantage against others. Many of the EU’s member countries have sought various derogations from some aspects of the single market or restricted many of the reforms proposed. Moreover, the different consumption and stake in the oil industry affects the operations of the single market. In this regard, France with its huge stake in the oil industry has led to the removal of energy from the products in the European single market.

While most of the member states of the EU follow different educational and professional standards, the mutual recognition of these qualifications in the region is always a challenge since some countries regard their standards as far much better than others. The operations and success of a single market requires a uniform sense of both monetary and fiscal policies across the region. In this regard, the adoption of a single currency was certainly a good direction towards this realization. However, given that some countries like the UK have not yet adopted the single currency, pure economic integration of the region becomes a great challenge.

Such integration is certainly a prerequisite toward the realization of a Single European Market. Of great challenge to the European single market is the enlargement of the EU. With a membership of 27 states, the region might face a lot of migration of workers from the poorest countries in Europe to some of the richest countries (Vickerman, 2002). In this regard, it was seen that such migrations would drastically affect the wage rates