MEP Richard Corbett says only 10% of UK laws come from EU.  German President says 84%. 

Who do you think is talking piffle?

So, how many laws do originate in Brussels?

eurofacts 25th April,2008

www.junepress.com

 

Prospect magazine has suggested that less than one in ten of our laws are EU-made but the official figures on which its claim is based demonstrates

NO SUCH THING!

An example of sloppy and biased journalism at its worst can be found in the April edition of the monthly magazine Prospect.  Its "News and Curiosities" column reports that

" one of the most enduring myths about the EU is that it enables meddlesome technocrats to burden us with pointless rules and regulations".

Prospect ridicules this obviously absurd and exaggerated claim.  In support it cites the "neutral" House of Commons library which , it says, has shown that the proportion of all UK legislation originating in Brussels is less than 10 per cent.  Mr Richard Corbett, the deputy leader of the Labour group in the European Parliament, has made similar claims, citing the same impeccable source

A telephone call to the House of Commons library reveals that the basis for this claim is EU legislation is Standard Note SN1A/288 written by Vaughan Miller of the Library's International Affairs Section: this was last updated in 2007.

THIS, however, shows NO SUCH THING.  What it does show is that over the previous seven parliamentary sessions the number of statutory instruments laid under the

European Communities Act 1972

represents about nine per cent of the total number of statutory instruments laid before Parliament during the period.

THIS HOWEVER IS A RELATIVELY SMALL PART OF THE PICTURE

EU Directives have to be transposed into national law, and in the UK that is DONE by means of STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS

EU Regulations, however, are directly applicable, automatically becoming new laws in the UK. Sometimes it is necessary to amend existing law, but often the EU Parliament does not even see them.

According to the briefing note, in 2006, the EU issued 177 Directives but very many more Regulations -2,033 (see table below.)

In addition there were more than one thousand Decisions; these would also have shaped British policy and legislation.

Mr Miller says that is impossible to give an accurate answer to the question of how many laws originate in Brussels because such laws might have been introduced by the UK on its own account and because existing EU LAW might adequately cover all or parts of EU LAW.

This explanation, which repeats similar intellectual sophistry [The 'noble lie' no doubt] by the former Europe minister Denis MacShane, is unconvincing.  Complex matters such as legislation can often be measured in different ways and different methods will yield slightly different results - but providing the assumptions behind the calculations are clearly stated there is no reason why meaningful and often revealing data cannot be provided.

Reputable sources in Germany, France and Finland have suggested that the proportion of their laws which began their life in Brussels is around

80%

The German President Roman Herzog has said statistics from the German Ministry of Justice show that the precise figure is

84%

There is no particular reason for thinking that the figure would be significantly lower in the UK.

In declining to answer the question the House of Commons Library Staff has evidently decided that obfuscation is the better part of valour.  However, we are very much indebted to it, for listing the total number of

 DIRECTIVES-REGULATIONS-DECISIONS

passed by the Council and Commission since 1980.

A cursory gl;ance at the statistics, the most recent of which are published below is sufficient to conclude the

PROSPECT magazine

has been talking piffle

and

MEP RICHARD CORBET

 owes his constituents an APOLOGY

FOR HAVING SERIOUSLY MISLED THEM

 

Year  Commission                       Council  Totals Grand Total
         
2000  38 Directives      43 Directives (inc. 18 with EP)     81  
   606 Regulations     182 Regulations (inc. 34 with EP)    788  
   557 Decisions       24 Decisions (inc. 4 with EP)    581     1450
2001    18 Directives       45 Directives (inc. 15 with EP)      63  
  600 Regulations      152 Regulations (inc. 3 with EP)     752  
  651 Decisions       30 Decisions (inc. 3 with EP)             681      1496
2002        
         
             1626
2003        
         
             1557
2004        
         
              1477
2005        
         
              1534
2006        
         
              3255
         

TO BE COMPLETED

 

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APRIL-2008

 

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THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN-IS THE EU COMMISSION LISTENING?

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Ditch the EU TREATY after IRISH REJECTION

SAY VOTERS

by

Daniel Martin

Political Reporter

[Daily Mail-Wednesday, June 18,2008]

MORE THAN HALF of voters believe Britain should drop the controversial European Treaty in the wake of its rejection in last week's

IRISH REFERENDUM'

The poll comes as the Tories launch a last-ditch bid in the

HOUSE of LORDS

today to delay the

RATIFICATION OF THE TREATY.

And

10,000 people

have signed a

PETITION

on the

DOWNING STREET- WEBSITE

within the past few days

JUNE16-2008

, calling on the

GOVERNMENT

NOT TO RATIFY THE BILL

[WHY DON'T YOU?]

 

Downing Street website is

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Abandon-Lisbon/

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JUNE 18-2008

 

 

 

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