Abstract
Mutual recognition is a remarkable innovation facilitating economic intercourse across borders. In the EU’s internal goods market it has been helpful in tackling or avoiding the remaining obstacles; namely, regulatory barriers between Member States. Mutual recognition (MR) is widely appreciated for the original and simple fashion in which it can solve what seemed long an intractable and infinite steeplechases of overcoming obstacles for thousands of products. It also underlies ingenious ways to facilitate the free movement of services. This general appreciation has spread beyond the Union to other continents and the WTO. The notion of MR has travelled beyond disciplines, too, from European law and the domain of regulatory specialists to economists worldwide.
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Notes
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Figure 3.1 extends the notion of ‘cost increasing trade barriers’ (emphasized by Pelkmans, J. and L. A. Winters, Europe’s Domestic Market, London, Routledge, 1988, pp. 18–20, as distinct from tariffs which are revenue generating, and this property is crucial in customs union theory) to mutual recognition.
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For example, US state regulation of registered nurses. However, these state rules were affecting inter-state free movement, which is not in keeping with the MR principle in the EU. Perhaps a comparable example consists of the packaging law in EU countries. See Peltzman, S., ‘Towards a More General Theory of Regulation’, Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 19, 1976, pp. 211–40.
This rigidity was a result of the excessive detail in the Directives, and the heavy procedural obstacles to non-trivial changes. For elaborations, see Pelkmans, J., ‘Regulation and the Single Market, an Economic Perspective’, in H. Siebert (ed.), The Completion of the Single Market, Tübingen, Mohr, 1990.
For a survey and trends of infringements, other compliance problems and financial sanctions by the ECJ, see J. Pelkmans, D. Gros and J. Nunez Ferrer, ‘Long-Run Economic Aspects of the EU’s Eastern Enlargement’, Working Document, no. 109, The Hague, WRR, chapter 3, 2000. (see www.wrr.ul)
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See MAC Groupe, ‘The Cost of Non-Europe in the Foodstuffs Industry, Case of Recycling Law of Beverages in Denmark’, Research on the Cost of Non-Europe, Basic Findings, vol. 12, Part A, 1988, pp. 368–94.
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Pelkmans, J. (2005). Mutual Recognition in Goods and Services: An Economic Perspective. In: Padoa Schioppa, F.K. (eds) The Principle of Mutual Recognition in the European Integration Process. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230524354_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230524354_3
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