European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

We wouldn't want to upset business.

by Colman
Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 03:17:06 AM EST

More than 60 draft European Union laws will be scrapped this month, as José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, launches Brussels' biggest ever deregulation campaign.
Mr Barroso wants to axe a wide variety of laws designed to impose EU-wide standards, claiming that some legislation was “absurd” and brought Europe into disrepute.

[...]

Laws will be axed if legislation can be better left to member states, where there is an inadequate assessment of the impact on business, or where the measure is seen as too “heavy handed”.

[...]

Mr Barroso said: “I'm not against regulation at a European level, but we are no longer in the heroic era of Jacques Delors, completing the single market with a new piece of legislation every day.”

So now legislation will be dropped if business or the tabloids don't like it? Excellent.

This is part of his attempt to rehabilitate his Commission after a bad year which has left him looking bad.

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We wouldn't want to upset business. | 15 comments (15 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: We wouldn't want to upset business. (none / 0)

What's the FT position? That it s a good thing, or what?

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia

by whataboutbob on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 04:16:41 AM EST

Re: We wouldn't want to upset business. (none / 0)

Straight news piece, so no opinion. They're pretty good that way on straight news.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 04:35:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Let's first see... (none / 0)

... what laws will be axed and then join in with hooting or applause. Information, please.

Making a law about covering cleavage to protect employees from the sun is a nice example of, frankly, how absurd some laws can get.

Anyone has a link to which laws are being discussed here?

by Nomad on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 05:00:55 AM EST

Re: Let's first see... (none / 0)

That was one of them. Of course, that wasn't what the law would have said, but details don't generally count in this particular game, do they?

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 05:05:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Let's first see... (none / 0)

I do wonder whichlaws he is referring to. How can we find out? Let's keep our eyes open...

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia

by whataboutbob on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 05:07:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Let's first see... (none / 0)

From the above article:

They include proposals to protect workers from solar radiation - a draft law rejected by the European parliament last week after the media claimed it would force builders and Bavarian barmaids to cover up. Mr Barroso said it had become "a joke".
Mr Barroso is also expected to urge Commission colleagues on September 27 to withdraw proposals for EU-wide rules in areas such as food labelling, presentation and advertising, the regulation of sales promotions and weekend lorry-bans.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 05:24:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Let's first see... (none / 0)

Another example of putting up one thing as window-dressing - ditch a lot of good regulations business doesn't like behind one that works.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 05:48:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Let's first see... (none / 0)

Sorry, messed up:

"ditch a lot of good regulations business doesn't like behind one that is truly crazy."

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 05:54:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Let's first see... (none / 0)

Which one is truly crazy?

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 06:03:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Let's first see... (none / 0)

Well, sorry, another modification: which seems truly crazy in the yellow press... Apparently I have still not completely woke up.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 06:09:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Food labelling... (none / 0)

I wonder if this presages giving in to the US on GM foods? That might not be all good.

OTOH, even worse would be a reduction in food nutrition or safety labelling rules.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 01:51:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: We wouldn't want to upset business. (none / 0)

Barroso declared upon becoming Commission president something to the effect that he wants to be a neoliberal revolutionary. This after his economic policies at home in Portugal were a total failure (plus he cooked the books, I wonder why that is not thematised in the press every time he utters anything about economics). The French (and Dutch) NO was a big blow to him, but he is undeterred.

BTW, all this is Tony Bliar's fault. It was him who, out of his silly fear of Franco-German dominance, swung behind the candidate of the conservatives.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 05:53:07 AM EST

Re: We wouldn't want to upset business. (none / 0)

I can't help but wonder what Barosso's conversion process from a Socialist to a neo-con was? (duh, money?)

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia

by whataboutbob on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 06:12:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: We wouldn't want to upset business. (none / 0)

Generally disillusionment with communism combined with an eye for their pocketbook. It's the same journey a lot of the neocon crowd in the US made.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 06:36:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Portugal's 'Social Democrats' (none / 0)

Barroso was a Maoist at his university before the revolution, but right-wing ever since. It's just that in Portugal, going with the public mood after the collapse of fascism (we often forget that fascism didn't end with WWII on the Iberian peninsula, just grew sclerotic), right-wingers from the pro-democracy-reformist 'liberal wing' of the ancien regime named their formation Social Democratic Party. But it is a right-wing party like any other, the centre-left party (which won the elections after Barroso's departure to Brussels) is called Socialist Party.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Wed Sep 14th, 2005 at 07:19:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

We wouldn't want to upset business. | 15 comments (15 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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