It may have been a long time coming, and certainly well after the liberalization envisaged in the originating Treaties of Rome (i.e. the treaties establishing the EEC, the precursor to the EU, which came into effect in 1958), but trade liberalization has finally come to the forefront of the bureaucratic agenda in Brussels. Notwithstanding the enshrinement of the four fundamental rights in Treaty of Rome, three of which ostensibly dealt with commercial and trade rights (i.e. the free movement of goods, the free movement of capital, and the free movement of services), Brussels has now passed new legislation intended to remove discriminatory rules and cut red tape. The legislation also removes barriers to cross-border shopping and cross-border business-to-business sales, and obliges member states to create a website where foreign businesses can find and fill out all the administrative forms necessary to set up a branch or subsidiary in that country.
European Voice – EU ends ‘discrimination’ against businesses