Discriminatory national restrictions in the internal market

The results of the survey show that the majority of the participating trading companies in the EU feel hampered by national trade barriers and that this has a negative impact on the trade in goods in the EU internal market. This applies particularly with regard to companies operating in Visegrad countries and in Bulgaria and Romania. Of the companies operating in other EU countries, more than half stated that they suffer discrimination in the running of their businesses in certain Member States as compared with domestic competitors. The reason for this principally appears to be discriminatory administrative practices by national authorities. A description of the types of discrimination and barriers to trade which most commonly occur and have the greatest impact is provided by the summary of the results.