Free Trade and Competition in the EEC

Book excerpt: This book examines the extent of free trade within the EEC and attempts to establish the conditions under which a State may operate in the Market through the medium of the undertakings which it controls. It discusses the ways in which Member States may tamper with free market forces without infringing the principle of free competition, and whether state liability can be established for such actions. It also assesses the separate liability of both public and private enterprises which operate under such a heavily state-regulated environment that a certain anti-competitive behaviour is virtually imposed upon them. The book concludes that the system as it operates is not as successful as it might be and that the Council of Ministers and the Commission should set guidelines for co-ordinated action in order to avoid national policies leading to a rejection of the free-market principle.