Minimum harmonisation is a term used in
European Union law
European Union law is a system of rules operating within the member states of the European Union (EU). Since the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community following World War II, the EU has developed the aim to "promote peace, its valu ...
.
Minimum harmonisation describes a piece of law (usually a
directive but occasionally a
regulation
Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...
) that sets a threshold national legislation must meet. EU Member State national legislation may exceed the terms of minimum harmonisation law.
Much EU legislation has been implemented on a minimum harmonization basis as it can be easier to reach agreement, allowing existing EU Member State national legislation on issues such as
consumer protection
Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...
or
the environment
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses t ...
to remain in place.
In more recent years, the burden of EU law has led to calls for
deregulation
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
and accusations that some member states indulge in
protectionism
Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...
when implementing directives into EU Member State national law by
gold-plating. Therefore, on the opposite end of the regulation spectrum, a growing minority of EU law contains
maximum harmonisation
Maximum harmonisation is a term used in EU law.
If a piece of law (usually a directive but occasionally also a regulation) is described as maximum harmonisation, national law may not exceed the terms of the legislation. In practice, that prohibi ...
provisions.
It is quite common for a directive or recommendation to consist of a mixture of minimum harmonisation and maximum harmonisation clauses.
References
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European Union law
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