The Rules of Competition within the European Common Market

Abstract

Although this article deals with two different Treaties, concluded at different periods and for different products, it actually refers to the Common Market of one single European Community. Furthermore, the Common Market is not the simple juxtaposition or the simple addition of the national markets of Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands; the implementation of the European Treaties aims at the integration of these separate markets, the European Common Market being the basis of a new economic unit, the European Community. This unity is already reflected at the institutional level in the existence of a single Court of Justice and a single Parliament for the Community.' Furthermore, the Council of Ministers consisting of one member from each of the six Governments, is likewise a common institution of the three Communities, although the Ministers meeting for the European Economic Community (E.E.C.) or the European Coal and Steel Community (E.C.S.C.) are not the same in each case, nor are the powers conferred on the Council the same under each of the two Treaties. The rules of competition illustrate clearly the unity of the Common Market, based as they are on the same principles of economic policy. The fact that, in practice, these rules are applied by different institutions-for the E.C.S.C., High Authority, and for the E.E.C., the national authorities, the Commission, and the Council of Ministers-cannot disrupt this unity because, on the one hand, the parliamentary control and, accordingly, the political impulse lie within the jurisdiction of one and the same Parliamentary Assembly; and because, on the other hand, the