Community preference was a concept in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

in which all the member states would be encouraged by the Institutions of the European Union and the

Treaties of the European Union The Treaties of the European Union are a set of international treaties between the European Union (EU) member states which sets out the EU's constitutional basis. They establish the various EU institutions together with their remit, procedures ...

to give priority preference to all goods, trade, services, agricultural products and people from their fellow EU member states over all goods, trade, services and people from non-EU countries. Proponents argued that this would add to the benefits of EU membership by encouraging the member states to trade with each other rather than to trade with non-EU counties who are outside the bloc. It would serve as an integral part of the

freedom of movement for workers in the European Union The freedom of movement for workers is a policy chapter of the acquis communautaire of the European Union. The free movement of workers means that nationals of any member state of the European Union can take up an employment in another member stat ...

as well as the European Single Market and the

European Union Customs Union The European Union Customs Union (EUCU), formally known as the Community Customs Union, is a customs union which consists of all the member states of the European Union (EU), Monaco, and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekel ...

. Community preference would not apply to countries of the European Free Trade Association even though they were members of the European Single Market and observed freedom of movement rules. It was one of the founding principles of the establishment of the European Communities (which would later become the

) when the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1958. But in a judgment in 1994 ''Greece v Council'', Case C-353/92, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed that Community preference was not a principle of EU law. Its legal basis, Article 44 of the Treaty of Rome, was repealed by the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty.

References

{{Authority control Trade blocs

See also

References