Harmonisation of law

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In the European Union, harmonisation of law (or simply harmonisation) is the process of creating common standards across the internal market. Though each EU member state has primary responsibility for the regulation of most matters within their jurisdiction, and consequently each has its own laws, harmonisation aims to:

• create consistency of laws, regulations, standards and practices, so that the same rules will apply to businesses that operate in more than one member state, and so that the businesses of one state do not obtain an economic advantage over those in another as a result of different rules.
• reduced compliance and regulatory burdens for businesses operating nationally or trans-nationally.

An objective of the European Union to achieve uniformity in laws of member states is to facilitate free trade and protect citizens.^[1]

Harmonisation is a process of ascertaining the admitted limits of international unification but does not necessarily amount to a vision of total uniformity.^[2]