2014

internal
market

Should the law of the EU's internal

market be made more coherent? If
so, how could this be achieved?

enforcement

[quote]: What measures, general or

sector-specific, would you advocate in
order to improve law enforcement
in the IM?

freedom of
If the TEU prohibits all national
establishment measures which hinder or make less
& FM of capital attractive the exercise of the RoE, why
is company law harmonisation
necessary?

EU private law [quote]: Is such a comprehensive and

self-standing instrument necessary
for the completion of the EU's internal
market? Is the EU constitutionally
competent to adopt such a
comprehensive and self-standing
instrument?
consumer law

The scope and purpose of EU

consumer law remains deeply
controversial. Some writers claim that
it is an aspect of the EU's social
market economy. Other writers insist it
is simply a means to complete the IM.
And other criticise it as harmful
paternalism.

state aid

To what extent does EU law establish

a satisfactory separation between
national measures that count as aid
within the meaning of Art 107 and
measures of general market
regulation which escape the reach of
that Article? How, if at all, do you
think EU law's treatment of this matter
could be improved?

general

To what extent did the Treaty of Lisbon

change the law of the EU's internal
market?

more

IP law case study (Baya)

2013

2012

Are the FM rules and legislative

harmonisation complementary or
competing ways to complete the
EU's internal market?

What is needed to complete the EU's

internal market?
***
Does the ECJ's interpretation of TFEU
which concerns the IM go too far in
restricting the regulatory autonomy
of the MS?

[quote about MS enforcement of EU

rules]: What steps are being taken to
tackle these problems? What more
might usefully be done? In your
answer you may draw on as many
areas of the law of the IM as you wish.

The methods for securing the

enforcement of the EU's rules fail to
create sufficient incentives to deter
violation of those rules. They simply
have to be made tougher." Discuss in
relation to either the state aid rules or
the PP rules.

TEU refers to a 'highly competitive

social market economy' (Art 3(3)
TEU). To what extent might this
endorsement of a EU based on a high
degree of competitiveness explain the
approach of the COM and the Court to
the abolition of restrictions on
corporate establishment and capital
movement?

Which has made a more significant

contribution to facilitating crossborder corporate mobility: company
law harmonisation or the case law of
the ECJ on corporate establishment?

Does the deepening of market

integration in Europe make the
development of common rules of
private law more or less useful?

Hondius: "It is usually alleged that

consumers are better off with min.
harmo. I would challenge this point
Only when they know their rights,
consumers can fully profit therefrom.
In other words: full harmonisation
may also benefit consumers."

[quote]: Is there more to EU consumer [quote by Dani on the 'fractured

policy than 'empowerment'? Should European consumer']: To what extent
there be?
do the ECJ decisions and the
legislative acquis reveal different
approaches to the protection of the
consumer? Would it be helpful to
mend any such 'fracture' between
these approaches?

Does EU law governing state aids go

far enough in protecting the
competitive structure of the IM from
distortion caused by MS policy
choices?

Quigley: "In order to establish whether

the measure results in the grant of
selective state aid, first, the objective
pursued by the system must be
established and second, all
undertakings in a comparable legal
and factual situation in the light of
that objective must be identified and
third, the tax treatment of all of those
undertakings must be assessed.
Differential treatment will give rise to
a presumption of state aid unless it is
justified by the nature or general
scheme of the system."

DIR 2005/29 (unfair B2C comm.

practices): based on Art 114; 'legal
requirements related to taste and
decency' are excluded from
harmonisation, due to cultural
differences. Also, the core notion of
'unfairness': interpreted differently.
Unification of each of the two?

The COM is advised that the gov't of

one MS is planning a programme of
strengthened public health protection:
all tobacco products marketed in
plain packaging. The COM seeks
your advice on whether a DIR
requiring that all MS introduce such
laws would be within the competence
of the EU, and if so, whether it would
comply with the principles of subs.
and prop.

2011

2009

Is minimum or maximum harmo

more suitable to achieve the
objectives of the EU?

Art 3(m)EC provides that the activities

of the EC shall include "the
strengthening of the competitiveness
of EC industry". To what extent is this
objective reflected in the
interpretation by the ECJ of the
fund.freedoms, and in the adoption of
legislature?

To what extent should the LSD and the

LED be regarded as a model which
provides the right balance between
ensuring cons. protection and
facilitating c-b prof. activities? Are the
signs that this model is influencing EU
rules on the c-b exercise of other prof.
activities to be welcomed or not?

To what extent does permitting the

practice of prof.activities in MS under
home-country prof. title provide an
acceptable alternative to MR of
prof.qualifications under the 'general
system' referred to in DIR 2005/36/EC?

Does the EU possess legal

competence to establish common
rules of contract law throughout the
EU? Should it establish such common
rules?

Do consumers and businesses need

an EU contract law? If the EU
institutions accept there is a need for
EU legislation, which aspects of
contract law should be harmonised?

To what extent is it correct to

understand the provision of
information as the guiding principle
of EU consumer law and policy?

[quote from COM Press Release on the

proposed ConsRD 2008]: Do any new
advantages which the ConsRD would
bring to consumers justify adoption of
the 'horizontal appropach' to this
revision of the consumer acquis?

SA Action Plan 2005: "SA policy

Do the rulings of the ECJ in Altmark
safeguards CPT in the IM and it is
(+ subsequent cases) strike the right
closely linked to many objectives of
balance between the competence of
common interest, like SGEI, reg. & soc. nat. authorities & courts, and the
cohesion, employment, R&D,
competence of the COM under Art
environ.protection and the promotion 86(2) EC?
of cult. diversity. It must contribute by ***
itself and by reinforcing other policies [quote from AG Jacobs in
to making Europe a more attractive
PreussenElectra]: To what extent
place to invest and work, building up should the ECJ continue to insist that
knowledge and innovation for growth competitive advantages conferred on
and creating more and better jobs."
domestic undertakings be financed
How successfully does the current law through State resources?
on SA reflect and achieve these
several objectives?
"Today, the acquis comm. comprises Suppose the COM is considering a
1521 dirs and 976 regs related to the proposal for a Reg to harmonise nat.
various policy areas. An action to
rules on the advertising and
deepen the iM is therefore unlikely to promotion of goods & services in
require a new wave of regs and dirs as shops and supermarkets. To what
it was the case with the 1985 White
extent would such a Reg fall within the
Paper."
scope of the EU's legislative
What has changed since 1985? And if competence? To the extent that such
action to deepen the single market is a Reg would fall within the scope,
unlikely to require this new wave of
would it be consistent with the
legislation, then what is needed?
principle of subsidiarity?
+ a case study on state aid

Has the Cassis case-law, and the

principle of 'conditional' mutual
recognition, rendered it unnecessary
in practice to harmonise the
composition and specification of
products which might be traded
between MS?

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002