A single market?

[Albion]

IT IS wise, in times of austerity, to do one’s Christmas shopping early. Why put up with inflated holiday-season prices? In Brussels there are cheerful flea markets aplenty and impressive warehouses of charity goods. And if the “heart of Europe” is hardly the capital for bargains when it comes to new products, it matters little. The euro makes it easy to compare prices across 16 countries, and the single market allows goods to move freely within the European Union. So with a fast internet connection, it should be easy to find the best deals from Lisbon to Lapland. Saint Nick need never leave home.

Time, then, to raise a glass of mulled wine to the EU’s four freedoms of movement: people, goods, services and capital? Up to a point. The EU likes to think of itself as a continent-sized market of 500m consumers and 20m firms. In practice, it is often an agglomeration of national markets, each with its rules and oddities. Ask the French retailer, Carrefour, Europe’s biggest. It wants to buy its own-brand cheese from the Netherlands, but is prevented from doing so by France. Why? Because Dutch emmenthal is produced in 15kg (33lb) moulds, and France insists that it be made in 40kg ones. When Carrefour ships French-made chairs to its stores in Italy, the French safety certificates must be countersigned by an Italian laboratory. Absurdly, Carrefour says it has to confirm that the chairs will not be used for the purposes of torture.

Scan the European Commission’s consumer reports, and the distortions are visible. Pre-tax car prices may be fairly uniform across the EU, but the same is not true of vacuum cleaners. How to explain that food costs 28% more in Belgium than next door in the Netherlands, when the two countries are of broadly similar size and wealth? Paracetamol costs 14 times as much in France as it does in the Netherlands. Some variation may be explained by tax rates and the cost of real estate, wages and transport. Even so, the single market is clearly not living up to its name.

In the past such differences might just about have been sustainable. Shoppers usually travel only a few kilometres from home or work to compare prices. But in the internet age such stubborn gaps are perplexing. Surely, consumers should be getting online to take advantage of cheaper prices. And yet it is not happening. Only a tiny share of e-commerce transactions in the EU—which themselves make up a small fraction of European transactions overall—are conducted across national borders.

In part this reflects a problem common to all European retailing. Some shops like to segment their markets to maximise margins where they face less competition. Big retailers, in turn, complain that suppliers impose geographical barriers: identical goods produced in the same factory must often be bought at different prices to be sold in different countries. Eurocrats suspect there is much market-fixing going on, in breach of the EU’s services directive. This forbids “discrimination” against consumers in different countries, except where differences are justified by “objective criteria”. How these should be interpreted and enforced is a matter for individual countries.

In part, the obstacles to cross-border internet trading are peculiar to the online world. Price-comparison websites remain obstinately national. A bigger problem is that most online retailers don’t want the hassle of 27 different consumer-protection laws, VAT rules, electronic waste regulations and postal systems. Varying copyright rules hinder pan-European downloads of music and video files, and even sales of music players and blank CDs.

In short, European shoppers and firms still think nationally. Oddly, it is American online traders such as Dell, Amazon, eBay and Apple that are the most active in Europe (though not without problems). Maybe they had an early advantage. Maybe only big players have the administrative strength to cope with so many national rules. Or maybe Europeans just can’t think big. Whatever the reason, European shoppers often find it easier to buy goods from America than from a neighbouring country.

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[beaver]

Stop every exchanges in the world and you will live! Otherwise you will be in the full arse in ten years or about

[Albion]

I see the problem here: France

The French get blamed for a lot in England with regards to the EU, but this actually looks like something they should be blamed for.

It wants to buy its own-brand cheese from the Netherlands, but is prevented from doing so by France. Why? Because Dutch emmenthal is produced in 15kg (33lb) moulds, and France insists that it be made in 40kg ones.

Stupid.

When Carrefour ships French-made chairs to its stores in Italy, the French safety certificates must be countersigned by an Italian laboratory. Absurdly, Carrefour says it has to confirm that the chairs will not be used for the purposes of torture.

What?! They're not going to frickin' North Korea!

A bigger problem is that most online retailers don’t want the hassle of 27 different consumer-protection laws, VAT rules, electronic waste regulations and postal systems. Varying copyright rules hinder pan-European downloads of music and video files, and even sales of music players and blank CDs.

It's ridiculous. If the single market is supposed to be just that then it needs to start living up to its name or abandon the idea altogether.

I believe in a degree of protection for a nation's industries such as higher taxes on imported goods, but this whole jumble of different regulations is just a pain in the arse rather than protection of a nation's industry.

[beaver]

It's ridiculous. If the single market is supposed to be just that then it needs to start living up to its name or abandon the idea altogether.

The most serious problem - Europe will not be able to pay pensions in the 10 years perspective. This is a problem.

[The Lawspeaker]

I think that the single market should be subjected to a vigorous study in order to see whether it works or not. One of the four freedoms should be abandoned or, at least, modified: the free movement of people. Particularly Schengen and the movement of the free movement for the non-economically active and the freedom of movement for workers.

[Albion]

I think that the single market should be subjected to a vigorous study in order to see whether it works or not. One of the four freedoms should be abandoned or, at least, modified: the free movement of people. Particularly Schengen and the movement of the free movement for the non-economically active and the freedom of movement for workers.

After witnessing Italy's actions last year I think that the Schengen needs to be reformed. Individual countries need powers to suspend the treaty as quickly as needed.
It also needs to work better with non-Schengen countries, look at how they treat our borders here. It seems that officials in the Schengen couldn't give a rat's arse about other nations, maybe the British Common Travel Area get's on the nerves of people who believe that the Schengen should cover all of Europe.

There also needs to be better control of the external borders of the treaty. A lot of illegals are getting to Calais and sneaking into lorries to get to the UK. What I'd like to know is how exactly they are getting into the Schengen in the first place and why the French don't deport them. The French simply leave them in Calais, they don't care because they know these people are heading to Britain where they'll be our problem.

The British Isles should stay out of it for now at least. If the Schengen gets its act together then it could be an option in the future.