The European Union (EU) is a group of countries from Europe that have an agreement in place for political and economic purposes. The EU has what is known as a single market, this allows for the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour.

The single market has a number of characteristics, these include:

• free movement of goods, services, capital and labour
• all of the countries within the EU can trade freely with each other, which means that no tariffs are put in place
• goods and services traded within the EU tend to be cheaper than those traded with countries outside of the EU
• there are general laws that affect businesses across the EU, examples include employment law and consumer protection
• no barriers to trade across member states
• tariffs on trading outside the EU