European single market

The European single market, also known as the European internal market or the European common market, is the single market comprising mainly the member states of the European Union (EU). With certain exceptions, it also comprises the Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway (through the Agreement on the European Economic Area) and Switzerland (through sectoral treaties). The single market seeks to guarantee the free movement of goods, capital, services, and people, known collectively as the "four freedoms". This is achieved through common rules and standards that all the EU member states are legally committed to following. A number of potential EU accession candidates have stabilisation and association agreements with the EU, which allow for limited participation in selected sectors of the single market, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. In addition, through three individual agreements on a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) with the EU, the post-Soviet countries of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine have also been granted limited access to the single market in selected sectors. Turkey has access to the free movement of some goods via its membership in the European Union–Turkey Customs Union. The United Kingdom left the European single market on 31 December 2020. An agreement was reached between the UK Government and European Commission to align Northern Ireland on rules for goods with the European single market, to maintain an open border on the island of Ireland. The market is intended to increase competition, labour specialisation, and economies of scale, allowing goods and factors of production to move to the area where they are most valued, thus improving the efficiency of the allocation of resources. It is also intended to drive economic integration whereby the once separate economies of the member states become integrated within a single EU-wide economy. The creation of the internal market as a seamless, single market is an ongoing process, with the integration of the service industry still containing gaps.

Electricity supply in West Africa: between bilateral agreements and a single regional market

It is necessary to specify that this study is an academic work carried out by a student as part of his master's project. The hypotheses and reasoning made by the student are at the origin of the results obtained. Energy has a crucial role in the economic development of a nation or region. The states of ECOWAS, have decided to come together to unite for this challenge and offer quality services to the population. WAPP, a specialized institution, decides to interconnect networks in order to pool the resources of the electricity market and offers quality access at a competitive price to the population. It is therefore necessary to strengthen production, distribution and transmission capacities to ensure the coordination of electricity exchanges between member countries. This study initially consisted in setting up a methodology explaining the progressive approaches that are applied throughout the project. The strategies for expanding the fleet are each analysed: the self-sufficiency strategy including existing imports and bilateral agreements, the strategy applied by WAPP along with variants involving the share of local production for importing countries. The expansion analysis is done with the support of the PlanElec software. An economic and technical comparison is then made on these two strategies, based on the different costs, the different investments, the installed powers by type and the energy produced. It can be seen that the more the share of local production increases for importing countries, the more interesting the weighted cost of production becomes. But this has a limit demonstrated by the autarkic strategy. Indeed, the countries considered as importers use imports and their weighted cost of production is lower than with a local production share imposed. From a global economic point of view, it is more interesting to rely on the major energy powers of the sub-region. With this study, it has been shown that it is more interesting for countries to turn to an open market policy, dependent on the major powers of the region, although politically no country wishes to be totally dependent on another.

2019

Electricity supply in West Africa: between bilateral agreements and a single regional market

2019

Electricity supply in West Africa: between bilateral agreements and a single regional market

A balancing market under uncertainty with a rolling horizon for European Market Structure

Electricity supply in West Africa: between bilateral agreements and a single regional market

A balancing market under uncertainty with a rolling horizon for European Market Structure