Monday, 27 October 2008
The Burden Of EU Regulation
The Taxpayers' Alliance published new research earlier today, indicating massive growth in the burden of EU regulation for Britain's struggling businesses:
I waited until this evening to report on this as I was curious as to what response this report would receive from the supposedly EU-sceptic Tory party. Do you know what? I can't find any official comment from their leadership whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
Anyhow, do go and have a read of the report if you want to see how £66bn of business savings could be made by cutting out "command and control regulation".
- Between 1998 and 2007 the EU added an average of 942 new laws each year; a total of 9,415.
- Last year 3,010 EU laws went onto the UK statute book.
- There are currently 16,980 EU acts in force.
- At least 770 pages of UK Statutory Instruments will be needed to enact the 76 Directives passed by the EU in 2007. Assuming this as an average per year, then EU directives alone have necessitated over 7,700 pages of UK law since 1997.
- Despite the enormous amount of EU legislation, UK gold-plating and poor enforcement practices exaggerate the burden of regulation.
Ben Farrugia, a Policy Analyst at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:
“Regulations are an enormous burden to business, particularly in a time of financial hardship. The EU’s addiction to regulating and Whitehall’s compulsive gold-plating have added billions to business costs in recent years. Both the legislative process which has created this regulatory tangle and Britain’s relationship with the EU needs a serious rethink.”
I waited until this evening to report on this as I was curious as to what response this report would receive from the supposedly EU-sceptic Tory party. Do you know what? I can't find any official comment from their leadership whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
Anyhow, do go and have a read of the report if you want to see how £66bn of business savings could be made by cutting out "command and control regulation".
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