Catherine Barnard Advises BIS on the Balance of Competences in the Single Market

On 22 July 2013 the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills published the Single Market Report: A Review of the Balance of Competences. This report is one of 32 reports being produced as part of the Balance of Competences Review. The Foreign Secretary launched the Review in Parliament on 12 July 2012, taking forward the Coalition commitment to examine the balance of competences between the United Kingdom and the European Union. Its purpose is to provide an analysis of what the UK's membership of the EU means for the UK national interest. It aims to deepen public and Parliamentary understanding of the nature of the UK’s EU membership and provide a constructive and serious contribution to the national and wider European debate about modernising, reforming and improving the EU in the face of collective challenges.

Professor Catherine Barnard wrote one of only two submissions that were specifically commissioned by the government for the purposes of the Report. Catherine's submission provided a legal analysis of the development of European competence on the single market. Her evidence is cited extensively in the Report.