The Influence of Fundamental Human Rights upon Implementation of European Union Internal Market Freedoms
Abstract
A single internal market is one of the main achievements of the European Union in the epoch of globalization. The EU includes not only a single market of goods and services but shares the values fixed in the EU founding treaties including The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. In particular, respecting fundamental rights is part of the common EU principles of law. The aim of the paper is to specify the balance of the principle of protecting human rights and economic freedoms of the EU internal market. The author identifies two aspects of the balance. The first aspect is that observing human rights promotes to the increase of effective functioning of the internal market. The second aspect is the aim of protecting human rights may be a ground to limit economic freedoms on the internal market. The research is based on the provisions of the following international law acts: European Union Treaty, Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union, EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, European Convention on Human Rights, European social charter, and the case practice of the EU Court. The first aspect overviews the principle of the prohibition of discrimination, protection of consumer rights, right to protecting private information, freedom of professional activity and right to labour. The second aspect deals with the EU law which provides for the possibility to limit the freedom of the internal market by member states to achieve some goals. In particular, the protection of human rights is one of the grounds for limiting economic freedoms of the EU internal market. The paper stresses the decision of the EU Court on C-112/00 Schmidberger (2003) on the freedom of movement of goods. The case showed that the primate of freedom of opinions and gatherings is a justification for limiting the freedom of movement of goods. Overall, it is impossible to state if the Court consider either human rights or economic freedoms of internal market more. National courts are given disposal in trying a case to seek a fairer balance between economic freedoms and human rights.
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