Chapter 3.01 Free movement of livestock as part of the policy of the internal market of the European Union includes regulations that govern the removal of all trade barriers between member countries with the aim of legally placing products on the market of the European Union to be able to move freely from one member country of the Union to another. The removal of restrictions on the free movement of livestock at the EU level is achieved primarily by the harmonization of national technical regulations of the member states. European technical law (the so-called harmonized area) was adopted for sectors with high risk in production, with the aim of ensuring an equal level of protection for public health, the environment and consumers in the Union.
Those production sectors that are not covered by European technical law (non-harmonized area) are governed by the principle of mutual recognition, according to which products manufactured and put on the market or put into use in one EU member country should, in principle, be able to move freely to other EU member countries.