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This article focuses on analysing the implications for European integration of overcoming the internal economic borders between the 27 member states and of moving towards a fully-functioning single European market. For examining the continuous process of eliminating barriers and reviewing shortcomings within the single market, an analysis of official EU documents and reports and of specialized literature on the topic of the European single market is conducted. As history has shown, the process of establishing the single European market and making it deliver at its full potential was a continuous struggle to overcome the borders between the EU member states. The analysis has pointed out that the efforts towards completing the single market are characterised by a mixture of negative (i.e. removal of barriers) and positive (i.e. creation of common institutions and regulations) integration strategies. Given the existence of both functional and political spillovers in the evolution of the single market, the neo-functionalist approach seems to be the most suited to explain the process of integration which takes place through the single European market.

"The multiple crises of the First two decades of the 21st century had a great impact on the European Union. As a result, a thorough reflection on the design of the European model is required and a reassessment of its goals is needed. This paper argues that differentiated integration describes best the current model of European integration and that it is favourable for creating, on long-term, a more united Europe. After explaining what the 'European model' stands for, the paper analyses the impact of the crises on the European economic governance framework - as the most decisively challenged dimension of the model - and presents some scenarios for the immediate ,future development of the European model of integration." (publisher's description)