The chapter on free movement of capital, which has the significant position among four fundamental freedom of the internal market, describes chronologically the fundamental legal aspects of the freedom of movement of capital within the European financial area

The adoption of the Maastricht Treaty has changed the principles of free movement of capital, initially defined by the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community. The Amsterdam Treaty conceives the structure of these principles in the propositions of its articles 56-60 as follows: all restrictions of movement of capital among Member States and between Member States and third countries are prohibited; all payment restrictions among Member States and between Member States and third countries are prohibited; the imposition of the protection measures is determined only by exceptional circumstances.

The free movement of capital represents a benefit not only to the citizens to the European Union, but also to the participants of financial markets. The freedom of capital movements thus contributed to the extensive integration of capital markets of Members States of the European Union.

The last part of the chapter contains the analytic overview of the impact of the European Union on the law-making process in Slovakia as well as on the harmonisation of the national legal framework within the area of the capital market with respective legal acts of EC.