In European Union law, the Four Freedoms (sometimes the Four Liberties) are the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labour within the internal market of the European Union. More precisely, they are: The European Union is unique among international organisations in having a complex and highly developed system of internal law which has direct effect within the legal systems of its member states. ... A good in economics is any object or service that, upon consumption, increases utility, and therefore can be sold at a price in a market. ... In economics and marketing, a service is the non-material equivalent of a good. ... In politics, a capital (also called capital city or political capital — although the latter phrase has an alternative meaning based on an alternative meaning of capital) is the principal city or town associated with its government. ... In classical economics and all micro-economics labour is a measure of the work done by human beings and is one of three factors of production, the others being land and capital. ... An internal market operates inside an organisation or set of organisations which have decoupled internal components. ...

• the free movement of goods,
• the free movement of capital,
• the free movement of services and freedom of establisment, and
• the free movement of persons.

These four freedoms form part of the substantive law of the EU (see Catherine Barnard The Substantive Law of the EU: The Four Freedoms, ISBN 0199251355). These freedoms are based on the ideology of the economic liberalism and/or neoliberalism. Substantive law is the statutory or written law that governs rights and obligations of those who are subject to it. ... An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... The liberal theory of economics is the theory of economics begun in the Englightenment, and believed to be first fully forumulated by Adam Smith. ... For the school of international relations, see Neoliberalism (international relations). ...

In practice, the freedoms are not protected equally. For example, the freedom of establishment is not as unrestricted as those of goods and services. Important new legislation, such as the 2004/38 Dırective on Citizenship, improves further the poistion of persons. Restrictions exist for citizens of the 10 new Member States after the 2004 Enlargement of the European Union). The Directive on services in the internal market aims to remedy some of these problems. The Treaty of Accession 2003 was the agreement between the European Union and ten countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia), concerning these countries accession into the EU. At the same time it changed a number of points which were originally laid down in the... The Directive on services in the internal market (commonly referred to as the Bolkestein Directive) is an initiative of the European Commission aimed at creating a single market for services within the European Union. ...

Critics from a (hardline) neoliberal point of view see these as transitory measures and aim to abolish these restrictions on the freedom (at least in the declared programme). A defence against this accusation is that "free movement of labour (and services)" (as an abstract concept in economics) is not necessarily equivalent to the human right called "freedom of movement", a right to residency in another member state, a right to establish a business in another country, or a right to make a claim for the freedom to cross a border. For example, using telecommunications technology, it is possible to "offshore" some customer service jobs without granting the freedom of movement to the employees (or subcontracting persons) providing the labour and services; this still achieves the goal of free movement of labour and services for this limited sector. Buyers bargain for good prices while sellers put forth their best front in Chichicastenango Market, Guatemala. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... Freedom of movement is a human rights concept which is respected in the constitutions of numerous Western states. ... A right is the power or privilege to which one is justly entitled or a thing to which one has a just claim. ... Residency is a stage of postgraduate medical training in North America which leads to eligibility for board certification in a primary care or referral specialty. ... Wall Street, Manhattan In economics, business refers to the social science of managing people to organize and maintain collective productivity toward accomplishing particular creative and productive goals. ... BlackBerry 7100t Telecommunications is the communication of information over a distance. ... Offshore may refer to oil and natural gas production at sea; see oil platform. ... Customer service is the provision of labor and other resources, for the purpose of increasing the value that buyers receive from their purchases and from the processes leading up to the purchase. ... A subcontract is a contract that assigns part of an existing contract to a different party. ...

Those from a left-wing point of view (such as Bernard Cassen, Susan Watkins, Caroline Lucas, Mike Woodin, and Daniel Cohn-Bendit) point out the underlying neoliberal ideological value in elevating these "freedoms" and the principle of competition (as proposed in Part III of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe) onto the same level as human rights (as enumerated in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, integrated as Part II of the proposed constitution). (See New Left Review II/33 and Green Alternatives to Globalisation by Woodin and Lucas.) In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... Caroline Lucas Dr Caroline Patricia Lucas MEP (born 9 December 1960) is an English politician, and Member of the European Parliament for the South East England region. ... Mike Woodin Cllr Dr Michael Edward Woodin (November 6, 1965 - July 8, 2004) was the Principal Speaker of the Green Party of England and Wales and a city councillor for Oxford from 1994 to 2004. ... Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Ash Wednesday 2004 at Biberach/Riss Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit (born April 4, 1945) was a leader of the student protesters during May 1968 in France. ... Competition is the act of striving against another force for the purpose of achieving dominance or attaining a reward or goal, or out of a biological imperative such as survival. ... The constitutional treaty as signed in Rome on 29 October 2004 The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE), commonly referred to as the European Constitution, is an international treaty intended to create a constitution for the European Union. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is a document containing human rights provisions, solemnly proclaimed by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission in December 2000. ... In 1960 in the UK, the editors of the New Reasoner and the Universities and Left Review merged their boards and formed the New Left Review. ...

External link

• European Union: internal market