'Level Playing Field'? What 'Level Playing Field'? - Another EU myth debunked

Brexit Facts4EU.Org reveals how prices vary across EU countries by up to three times

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2020

We expose the hypocrisy of the EU’s demands in the UK trade talks, and show
where to shop and where not to shop for bargains, across the EU’s un-level playing field

In this summary report, Brexit Facts4EU.Org reveals that there is not, and never has been, any “Level Playing Field”. It is high time that this EU fiction were called out, and our article does just that. And as if this were not enough, we also provide readers with some shopping tips for this summer.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Here is the reality for EU citizens in their own EU, right now

This is how the “Level Playing Field” feels for ordinary EU consumers

  • Gagging for some new glad rags, now that you can leave the house again?
    - Bomb on over to Budapest where clothing is 39% less than in Copenhagen.
  • Craving a new computer?
    - Crack on over to Krakow, where consumer electronic products are 18% cheaper than in Paris
  • Bursting for a burger?
    - Bustle over to Bucharest where your weekly supermarket sweep will cost 65% less than in Luxembourg.
  • Dying for a drink or a smoke?
    - Plump for Plovdiv (Bulgaria) where you can down a drink or light up for 67% less than in Dublin
  • Need to get around?
    - Buy a car in Bratislava (Slovakia) at 32% less than the cost of a runaround from Rotterdam
  • Need a place to stay?
    - After all that shopping, sleep in Sofia for 66% less than in Stockholm

The “level playing field” does not exist in the EU

As ever, Brexit Facts4EU.Org has researched the EU’s own official data and looked at its figures in detail. A great amount has been written about the EU’s ‘red line’ demand that it should be able to handcuff the UK into what the EU refers to as “level playing field” provisions. These are constraints which are draconian and which no other country has agreed – or would agree to – in any trade deal with the EU.

The simple reality is that for ordinary people in all EU27 countries,
there IS no level playing field in the EU

You don’t believe us? Try the EU Commission’s own statistics agency

© EU Commission 2020

Brexit Facts4EU.Org reviewed data based on the EU Commission’s price surveys covering more than 2,000 consumer goods and services which were conducted across 37 European countries. These countries include the EU27, the United Kingdom, three EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), five candidate countries (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey) and one potential candidate country (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

© EU Commission - click to enlarge

The examples we gave in our red summary box above are merely illustrative. The EU looked at six categories of expenditure: Food & non-alcoholic beverages; alcoholic beverages & tobacco; clothing; consumer electronics; personal transport (cars, bikes, fuel); and restaurants, bars & hotels. The table above shows the three most and least expensive countries for each general type of purchase.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The distinctly uneven “Level Playing Field” for EU27 citizens within the EU

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org - click to enlarge

The above data is based on “purchasing power parity”. In other words, it shows the relative costs for people actually living and earning in each country. It is based on the weighted average of the six areas of expenditure outlined above.

The terrain would be even more uneven if we showed the actual costs of the basket of more than 2,000 consumer goods and services for the average German, for whom almost everything would be very cheap no matter where they bought it.

How does all this relate to the UK’s trade talks with the EU?

There are three main sticking points in the UK-EU trade negotiations. These are the result of “red lines” which come from the EU side and which threaten to make any kind of trade deal impossible.

  1. “Level Playing Field” – the EU wanting to control the UK’s economy
  2. ECJ jurisdiction – the EU demanding that its judges rule over any deal
  3. Fisheries – the EU demanding full access to British waters as if it owned them

Observations

Michel Barnier’s mandate from all 27 EU countries in the trade talks is to impose a raft of restrictions on the United Kingdom to prevent it from being able to compete on the world stage.

Specifically the EU is desperate to prevent the United Kingdom from succeeding as an independent country, after the British people stood up against the globalist, totalitarian, and undemocratic “elites” in the capitals of the UK, the EU27 countries, and the world, and voted to leave the European Union.

Above we have shown the truth, red in tooth and claw. Using the EU Commission’s own data we suggest we have effectively ridiculed the notion that there is any kind of “Level Playing Field” in the EU. We have done so using information easily understood by everyone. The costs involved in daily life for normal people across the EU are all over the place. They have been for decades. Ordinary people in the EU are not walking on any kind of level playing field and never have been.

We have previously reported on average and minimum wages across the EU. These vary widely from country to country.

GDP per person? Uneven across the EU.

State aid for industries? Huge variations between EU countries, as we reported last month.

Environmental policies? Can the EU explain why Germany was able to fire up a huge new coal-powered electricity generating station in January of this year?

It’s high time the EU cut out the hypocrisy and humbug

Does the EU Commission want a trade deal with the UK, from whom the EU27 countries made £111 billion profit in goods trade last year? It would seem not. The people of the EU27 might think that this would make perfect sense, but their unelected leaders in Brussels do not.

The Brussels eurocrats would rather see companies around the EU fail and their employees be made redundant, than agree anything in the way of a normal trade deal with the UK.

We have stated this from the beginning, before the Referendum result, and we have not changed our opinion.

We are Brexit Facts4EU.Org
No surrender. Global success.

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[ Sources: EU Commission | OECD ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 30 June 2020

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