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'BLAME BRITAIN NOT BRUSSELS', SAYS REPORT
December 7, 2004 1:05 PM
Whitehall civil servants rather than Brussels-based Commissioners are responsible for many of the problems created by extra regulations, according to a new report published today.
The length of EU regulations can triple during the process of putting them on to the UK statute book, it is claimed, posing an unnecessary risk to British competitiveness.
Fault lies with the British habit of 'gold-plating' EU laws, adding bits to them never originally suggested, claims the European Movement in its pamphlet 'Regulation by Brussels? Myths and Challenges.'
One reason is that EU directives set out the targets but leave it to national governments to decide how to achieve them in a 'proportional' manner. Britain is accused of being over-zealous in its interpretation of many of the rules.
UK farmers, for example, are required to register the birth of calves within 27 days or face a penalty, but the same EU law applied in Spain gives farmers six months in which to comply.
Diana Wallis, Liberal Democrat Euro-MP for Yorkshire and the Humber, said that civil servants were wrapping the rules in 'red tape' and then blaming Brussels for the size of the package.
She commented: "We are part of a single market of over 400 million people and while there must be common standards, account is taken of national circumstances. Every MEP has come across instances of British gold-plating.
"There are butchers in the region being told by the Foods Standards Agency that they must buy new equipment costing thousands of pounds if they want to dress meat for farmers' markets, but the EU rules amount to nothing more than the basic hygiene requirements taught to every student of domestic science!
"It's crazy, and unnecessary, and it gives the European Union a bad reputation for no good reason at all."
Notes:
For a copy of the pamphlet, contact Anna Arki, European Movement 0207940 5252
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