EU Laws Part Three : Why we don’t believe the Civil Service about EU laws in the UK

Over 280,000 rules in the EU’s database and the Civil Service can only identify 3,745?

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023

In this third part in our series on EU retained laws (REUL) we question the official version

In EU-speak there is something called ‘the Acquis’, a French word describing the entire body of EU treaties, laws, directives, regulations, rules and decisions which all member countries are required to incorporate into their own legal frameworks.

For the 47 years of the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union, the UK was one of the most scrupulous countries in doing this. The MPs in the UK Parliament had no say in any of this imposition of the EU’s rulebook.

Still ruled by EU laws - a Facts4EU and CIBUK summary

Part One : What is “Retained EU law” and why does it matter to us all?
Part Two : Just how many EU laws do we still have and what are they?
Part Three : We don't believe the official figures are accurate or meaningful - and here's why (This report)
Part Four : The Government’s Remainer retreat and what MPs think of this

Over 30 new legal obligations every working day

The EU creates over 30 new packages of legal obligations every working day. Not one of these can be voted on by the parliaments of any EU member country.

If you’re a member country, you must simply accept this. And if you’re a member of the public, you can’t vote out the body that makes all these laws, directives and regulations at the next general election. There is no election and there is no choice. You must simply obey.

A random example from the EU’s legal database

Readers will no doubt be relieved to learn that the variety rights of asparagus, flower bulbs, woody small fruits and woody ornamentals are being protected by the EU.

Are you eating the wrong-shaped asparagus?

Regulation (EU) 2021/1873 of the European Parliament and of The Council, 20 October 2021

“On the extension of the term of the Community plant variety rights for varieties of the species Asparagus officinalis L. and of the species groups flower bulbs, woody small fruits and woody ornamentals.”

This Regulation is in force and applies to the following countries : BG, ES, CS, DA, DE, ET, EL, EN, FR, GA, HR, IT, LV, LT, HU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, FI, SV.

[Source : EU-Lex – The EU’s official legal database, accessed Wed 03 May 2023.]

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Why we don’t believe the Civil Service

In today’s report we show the extent of ‘the Acquis’ and contrast its vastness with the small number of ‘Retained EU Laws’ the Civil Service has so far identified for possible appeal or amendment.

In February of this year we analysed the EU’s legal database – not a job for the faint-hearted. Below we present our analysis, before posing some difficult questions.

More than 280,000 legal obligations in the EU’s database during the UK’s membership

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The EU’s legal minefield - a simple map through it

In the years since the UK joined the EEC (01 Jan 1973) until the year we technically exited (31 Jan 2020) there has been a LOT of EU legal interference in our lives.

Total EU laws, treaties, judgements, directives, regulations, and decisions : 284,056
NEW EU laws, judgements, directives, regulations, and decisions after exit: 28,680
Average No. of NEW packages of legal instruments per working day : 32.8 / day
All member countries must obey

[Source : EU-Lex – The EU’s official legal database, accessed Wed 03 May 2023.]

Note: We have excluded ‘corrections’ and ‘consolidated versions’.

The BBC has a £3.7 BILLION budget this year
The UK’s Rejoiner-Globalists have received over £3.5m in foreign funding

Brexit Facts4EU.Org is trying to raise only £100,000 p.a. – Can you help with a donation?
Please help today if you can: click here for options

The above contrasts with the Civil Service's identification of just 3,745 EU laws

Each UK law can of course cover more than one of the legal requirements imposed by the EU during the UK’s membership. Nevertheless it is very hard to reconcile the figure of the EU’s 284,056 laws, treaties, judgements, directives, regulations and decisions with the Civil Service’s very modest number of laws affecting the United Kingdom.

Observations

The EU has penetrated the UK’s legal system for 47 years

Regardless of the comparatively small number (3,745) of ‘Retained EU laws’ which the Civil Service has so far identified after almost seven years since the British people’s vote to leave, the simple fact is that the EU’s rules have permeated the British legal system on a far wider scale.

We do not underestimate the task of unravelling all of this. What we do question is the apparent insouciance of the Civil Service in undertaking this task – almost as if they do not wish the United Kingdom to diverge too far from the EU’s ‘Acquis’ in the expectation that we will soon rejoin under a new government.

The Government must prioritise

During all the time of the UK’s membership of the EU, the UK’s priorities were of little interest to the EU Commission. Our strength in financial services, for example, was of less importance than protecting the interests of French, Spanish and Italian farmers.

When the EU did act in the area of financial and other services, it most certainly did not do so in the UK’s interests. Nor did it encourage the innovation which the UK is renowned for, the world over. Instead, the EU’s famous ‘precautionary principle’ applied. In other words, ban something until you can prove it is valuable. This is not the recipe for an environment in which a vibrant, forward-looking, entrepreneurial economy can grow and flourish.

After a bomb has been put under the Civil Service, it is then vital that the UK’s legal framework rids itself of all the statist, protectionist, anti-entrepreneurial measures which are holding back our success in the financial, genetics, AI, fintech, and other sectors. These will bring far greater prosperity than changes in DEFRA regulations.

Ministers will have to direct their departments to focus on priority areas which generate wealth. Oh, and fire anyone who still thinks they can ‘work from home’.

We must get reports like this out there

Reports like the one above take far longer to research, write and produce than many people realise. If they were easy, readers would see other organisations also producing these daily. However, there’s little point in the Facts4EU.Org team working long hours, seven days-a-week, if we lack the resources to promote them effectively – to the public, to MPs, and to the media. This is where you come in, dear reader.

Facts4EU.Org needs you today

We are a 'not for profit' team (we make a loss) and any payment goes towards the actual work, not plush London offices, lunch or taxi expenses, or other luxuries of some organisations.

We badly need more of our thousands of readers to become members, to support this work. Could this be you, today? It's quick and easy, we give you a choice of two highly secure payment providers, and we do NOT ask you for further support if you pay once. We just hope you keep supporting us. Your membership stays anonymous unless you tell us otherwise.

Please don't assume that other people will keep us going - we don't receive enough to survive and we need your help today. Could you help us? We rely 100% on public contributions from readers like you.

If you believe in a fully-free, independent, and sovereign United Kingdom, please join now by clicking on one of the links below or you can use our Support page here. You will receive a personal, friendly ‘thank you’ from a member of our team within 24 hours. Thank you.

[ Sources: EU law library | HM Government ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 03 May 2023

Click here to go to our news headlines

Please scroll down to COMMENT on the above article.
And don't forget to actually post your message after you have previewed it!

Something to say about this? Scroll down for reader comments

Since before the EU Referendum, Brexit Facts4EU.Org
has been the most prolific researcher and publisher of Brexit facts in the world.

Supported by MPs, MEPs, & other groups, our work has impact.

We think facts matter. Please donate today, so that we can continue to ensure a clean Brexit is finally delivered.

Any credit card user

Quick One-off

From £5 - £1,000

Monthly

From £3 per month

Paypal Users Only - Choose amount first

Quick One-off

Monthly

PLEASE NOTE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT : You can write your comment under any existing comments below. After you have clicked to preview your comment, you MUST then click on the CAPTCHA system and send you comment, for it to be published. Thank you!

Reader Comments 18

1. Sparky , Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 06:33:

The British love rules, were the ones who queue. It was the UK that created the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, which had a significant influence in EU. H&S inspections are constantly looking to improve and by doing so keep adding stricter and more restrictive measures, nothing to do with the EU.
Any directives issued by the EU, the UK had a say in its creation and agreed to. Most are administrative.
When it got to the UK it was then Gold plated by our politicians who then blamed the EU for it whilst the rest of the EU diluted or ignored the same.
Leaving the EU wont stop rules being issued by our politicians.
Some recent examples in the UK in 2022.
New buildings in England to have compulsory built-in EV chargers
Plastic Packaging Tax
Changes to the Highway Code including giving cyclists more room.
Mandatory speed limiters for all new cars
More will follow and there will be constant comparison and keeping up with whatever the EU does.
We will also be following the EU to keep in alignment to ease imports and exports and due to the Windsor Framework for NI which will hold Britain to keep alignment with NI.

2. Mike S , Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 07:37:

1 Sparky, I disagree with most of which you posted, especially the last part. Britain does not need to have any, 'framework' or any other 'policy' to keep in alignment with Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland IS BRITISH! Period!

3. terence patrick hewett , Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 08:12:

Sparky: like most things, you misunderstand the UK unwritten constitution. The UK has an unwritten constitution which is embodied in the laws, principles and statutes by which we are governed: unlike the US which has a written constitution, so it is very difficult for an administration to do anything unconstitutional since all they have to do is table an Act of Parliament:
"No Act of Parliament can be unconstitutional, for the law of the land knows not the word or the idea."
One of the few things that can be deemed unconstitutional is not to enact the law: hence the enthusiasm to implement law emanating from the EU - not to do so, as France or Germany often does, would be unconstitutional.
We have an unwritten constitution because the UK is a union of ancient nations with a turbulent history so a great deal of flexibility was needed. But now after Brexit, constitutional reformation is long overdue - when we get a govt with the determination, intellect and energy to do it..

4. Sparky , Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 09:32:

2 MS. With NI subject to certain provisions of EU law any divergence from those by Britain will push NI further away from the UK eventually leading to Irish unification.
3 TPH. Your comments are contradictory. "No Act of Parliament can be unconstitutional". "unconstitutional is not to enact the law: hence the enthusiasm to implement law emanating from the EU". But our law makers Gold plated EU law, take smoking (a law I agree with by the way) introduced in 2005 ish, the UK didn't need to go as far as it did but chose to.
.
Brexit news:
Interview on Sky News with Anthony Weldon, author of Johnson at No10;He said, at his heart, Johnson is an extraordinarily empty character, and dismissed any claim that he truly believed the UK’s exit from the European Union would be in the interests of the country.
.
“The evidence is absolutely clear,” Seldon says. “From the beginning it was striking that he believed that there was a cause far higher than Britain’s economic interests, than Britain’s relationship with Europe, than Britain’s place in the world, than the strength of the union. That cause was his own advancement.”
.
And, British microchip giant Arm has decided to take its bumper listing to New York in part due to the damage done to the London market from leaving the EU.

5. Catherine , Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 09:37:

Sparky really does not understand the UK constitution., nor the huge benefits of how our laws are drafted.
Oh, and by the way, some of the new laws posted by Sparky were initiated by the EU when we were still tied into it (pre Dec 2021). And on the speed limiters, if our host permits, have a read of this - and the URL misses the key question - is it a good idea?
https://www.topgear.com/car...

6. KB , Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 09:43:

I was expecting to see a top ten list of laws that we could repeal.
Repealing Law X will give the ordinary Brit this benefit, Y.
The vast majority are not bothered about asparagus laws. It makes no difference to our lives one way or the other.
If you want to increase support for Brexit, you need to identify which laws to change and tell us about the benefits of so doing.

7. Captain Thunderbolt , Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 09:44:

4. Sparky , Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 10:32:
2 MS. With NI subject to certain provisions of EU law any divergence from those by Britain will push NI further away from the UK eventually leading to Irish unification.
-
What you seem to forget is the UK has not diverged from the food standards at the time of signing the protocol, but as we have talked about before the EU has changed the regulations/standards
Who is protecting the UK internal market?

8. NH , Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 10:01:

1. "The British love rules, were the ones who queue"
The British comply with rules but we do not love them. Next time you see a que ask the people how much they love being there. 32.8 new rules per day is more than most people can read. I believe British people prefer democratic control and personal freedom and we only want more rules when they are essential and democratically popular.
In France it seems they apply rules by bypassing parliament and getting out the tear gas and truncheons. I'd prefer to keep the British system.

9. NH , Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 10:56:

4 "And, British microchip giant Arm has decided to take its bumper listing to New York in part due to the damage done to the London market from leaving the EU."
Arm is owned by Softbank of Japan. It's considering an IPO on Nasdaq this does not effect it's business operations or employees the vast majority which are in Cambridge, UK and this is not going to change. It only effects where people buy and sell their shares and it does not prevent them from having a secondary listing in London as many companies do. As usual, in your despair, you are trying to present a British success story as a failure !
.
In recent days there have been positive trading statement or results from:
Barret Developments, Lloyds, Haleon, Mears, Unilever, GSK, Persimmon, ABF, Loknstore, Next 15, Sanderson, M&C Satchi, Whitbread etc etc.
.
I understand this will disappoint the "Rejoin at any cost Brigade" who seem to be praying for economic collapse.

10. Sparky , Wednesday, May 03, 2023, 11:06:

7 CT. One of the apparent false assumptions of Brexit was that the EU would collapse if the UK left and the EU would stand still. The EU have no interest in protecting the UK internal market, we have left. If EU food standards continue to change for the EU and NI over time this will highlight difference and at some point NI are likely to ask, why are we still part of the UK?
8 NH. The French have a solid history of protest. Britain joined others from Europe to fight the French for fear of revolution spreading to Britain but it didn’t. Karl Marx expected the British The first to revolt and adopted communism. The British don’t revolt, we usually hold a quiet protest that the politicians ignore (too busy making more rules) or join a queue.

18 comments, page 1 of 2

Add comment:

Please note: Your email address is never published unless you choose to enter it.