National Agencies in the Internal Market. Applying Free Movement

Förkortad version av 2006:16Förvaltning för fri rörlighetUnder the Treaty establishing the European Community (the ‘EC Treaty’), the Member States of the European Union have established a framework for an internal market to enable goods, services, workers and capital to move freely across national borders. Within the harmonised area, EC has enacted secondary legislation laying down common rules for the internal market. In the non-harmonised area, the general provisions of the EC Treaty apply directly. The areas of application of, as well as exceptions to, the Treaty rules have been interpreted by the Euro-pean Court of Justice (ECJ) on a case-by-case basis. Applying the rules of free movement correctly calls for an understanding both of the scope of Community legislation and of ECJ case law.

The Swedish Agency for Public Management has, on behalf of the Swedish Government, car-ried out an initial survey on how the framework for free movement of goods and services is applied and observed by Swedish national public agencies within the non-harmonised area. In this report, which is based on case studies as well as on previous surveys, the Swedish Agency for Public Management identifies a number of problems connected with application of the rules in Swedish public administration. The Agency further proposes various govern-ment measures to promote better enforcement of free movement.