What is the EU’s ‘Single Market’?

Put simply, the aim of the EU’s Single Market is to make it as easy to trade between Edinburgh and Dusseldorf as it is between Edinburgh and Dundee. This means that people, goods and services can move freely anywhere within the EU.

The single market has been achieved by removing barriers to trade and having a single set of trade rules across all member states. For businesses in Scotland that means being able to sell their goods and services to 500 million people, without paying any tariffs and without having to adhere to completely different rules in each country. An estimated 300,000 jobs in Scotland are estimated to rely on our trade with the rest of the EU.