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| Europe |
| From the desk of The Brussels Journal |
| 2007-02-06 |
| 180 Kilometers of Red Tape From the desk of The Brussels Journal A new briefing note from Open Europe [pdf] shows that the EU’s acquis communautaire – the body of EU legislation which European companies, charities and individuals have to comply with – now totals 170,000 pages. This contrasts with official assertions that the total is around 80,000 pages. By totalling up pages in the many volumes of the EU’s “Official Journal” of legislation Open Europe found that the EU has passed 666,879 pages of laws since its inception in 1957, around 26% of which is currently active. If all the legislation the EU has passed were laid out lengthways it would be over 120 miles long, whilst legislation currently in force would be 31.7 miles long. Open Europe Deputy Chairman Derek Scott, Tony Blair’s former Economic Advisor, said: “The growing burden of EU over-regulation is a serious problem for businesses and even voluntary groups. The EU needs to be redesigned to make it possible to roll back some of the unnecessary legislation.” Brussels Blames the People for Euro’s Unpopularity From the desk of The Brussels Journal A quote from a spokesman of the European Commission in The Daily Telegraph, 30 January 2007 We should always treat surveys [such as the FT-Harris poll which shows that most of the eurozone’s citizens would like to have their old national currencies back] with extreme caution because of the tendency of people to mix things up. Brussels’ Hidden Employees From the desk of The Brussels Journal A quote from The Sunday Telegraph, 28 January 2007 The European Commission’s website claims it has 25,000 staff. The British Government thinks the number is about 37,000. But the total employed by the Brussels executive is actually more than 54,000, researchers at the Westminster think tank Open Europe have discovered. [...] Lorraine Mullally, of Open Europe, said: “The EU discreetly publishes a Statistical Bulletin listing staff levels at its agencies, but when we contacted these agencies directly we found they had far more staff than listed.” Many of the agencies took months to answer requests. One, the European Police College, repeatedly refused to disclose its staff numbers. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |