Although finding no evidence of illegality, Wood reported that single market rules were being interpreted in ways that favored local companies, such as in contract requirements shaped to suit a given, national supplier, or by false competition where international bids are invited when there is little intention of awarding a contract to a non-national firm.
Such matters fall under single-market rules that generally apply to 27 members, in which Britain has no veto.
None of these is ready for the tough discipline of a single currency that rules out any future devaluation.
These they unified into a single set of rules for 160 countries.
First, they create legal certainty by replacing the current patchwork of laws in Europe with a single set of rules for all 27 European Union countries.
Well, in one way that sounds like an OK idea, a single set of rules for a certain type of finance: a level playing field and all that.
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It is a single set of rules that companies operating within the EU could use to calculate their taxable profits, rather than different rules in each member state in which they operate.
However, a survey of almost 1, 500 European business leaders carried out late last year by UPS, a logistics firm, showed that they are more worried about the failure to enforce the existing single-market rules.
Richard Corbett, adviser to Herman van Rompuy, the European Council president, says most policy "will remain for the 27: the single market, rules on consumer protection, competition, trade and other areas like environment or justice and home affairs".
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But just as the American government used the constitution's interstate commerce clause to expand its powers, so the European institutions have exploited single-market rules to extend their responsibilities into such areas as social policy, welfare and the environment.
Tellingly, Mr Monti has signed up to a letter sponsored by Britain, the Netherlands and other liberal countries urging stronger enforcement of single-market rules, including the naming and shaming of countries that fail to abide by commitments to open up energy and services.
Faced with an opportunity last December to wring concessions out of Brussels in return for supporting the euro-zone Fiscal Pact, he opted to make highly technical, apparently innocuous but actually implausible demands relating to the City of London, including a veto over single market financial rules.
The rules on labelling come from Europe, and among other things are dictated by the 'single market' competition rules.
Instead, he argued for an approach based on "building alliances" with like-minded countries, based on plans for jobs and growth, reforming the EU budget, completing the single market and changing rules on competition.
Orkney MSP said the new rules had resulted in higher levels of penalties due to unintentional errors in livestock paperwork and a new interpretation of land eligibility rules for Single Farm Payment (SFP) claims or Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS).
The government also changed the rules to allow single-brand retailers such as Nike Inc.
The IMO's rules require all single-hulled vessels to be phased out, but not until 2015.
The rules of the single currency expressly forbid any bail-out of one country by the centre or by other countries.
And the week before, shares of Washington Post company were also halted under the new circuit breaker rules after a single erroneous order entry.
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Mario Draghi hinted last week that if leaders could credibly commit to tougher budget rules within the single currency area, "other things might follow".
Mr Hague does not want to provoke his Europhiles into splitting, and so rules out the single currency only for the duration of the next parliament.
Until recently, candidate states would not have dared to question openly the rules underpinning the single currency, lest the markets send their currencies plunging and their borrowing costs spiralling.
He stressed that the UK had been "at the heart of decision making" on important issues like sanctions and EU enlargement, and "we wrote the rules of the single market and benefit from it today".
Ministers announced last year that they wanted a three-year relaxation of the planning rules to allow single-storey extensions of up to eight metres for detached houses and six metres for other houses to be built without planning consent being required.
The rules are stricter for single-engined helicopters, which should always follow the prescribed route.
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They also demanded tight rules for joining the single currency, and tough controls on borrowing by member states after entry.
In his view, the single currency and the ending of rules (known as block exemption) that restricted competition in the distribution and retailing of cars, is pushing prices down.
This is why careful attention should be paid in democratic countries to existing rules devised to prevent single groups or individuals from controlling large shares of the mass media.
On their surface, the new rules would provide for a single EU passport for hedge funds.
Despite the relaxation of rules on adoption, many single women and lesbian couples are still believed to face rejection by IVF clinics.
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