The European Union’s lawmaking machine in Brussels has long suffered from its perception as a conveyor belt of red tape and regulations.
The European Commission, the EU executive headed by Ursula von der Leyen that proposes laws, has been a popular dartboard for Eurosceptic politicians looking to tap into resentment about faceless Brussels bureaucrats “over there” coming up with rules that they claim make little sense on the ground.
There is an incorrect belief that about 80 per cent of national laws can be traced back to EU legislation.
The origin of the myth is a prediction by Jacques Delors, a former president of the European Commission credited with driving further EU integration. In a 1988 speech, Delors is quoted as speculating that in 10 years’ time, 80 per cent of laws related to economics, and possibly tax and social affairs, might originate in Brussels.
Britain to increase military spending as Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer compete to look toughest
‘I saw the Russian world from inside’: A Ukrainian human rights defender’s journey through war and captivity
Response to Elon Musk’s email shows possible limits to how far he can push US bureaucracy
The Russian over-50s fighting and dying in Ukraine
Gavin Barrett, a professor of European constitutional and economic law at University College Dublin, says the figure was later picked up by Eurosceptics and twisted.
“What had been intended merely as a speculative prediction was pounced upon for its propaganda value by political opponents of the European Union, who treated it instead as a description of what was already happening,” he says.
The real figure is difficult to gauge, but Barrett had a go at coming up with an estimate by combing through legislation passed by the Dáil.
Research showed about 32 per cent of primary Irish legislation in 2010 could be traced to EU membership, and 43 per cent in 2015.
On Wednesday, Von der Leyen’s commission unveiled an “omnibus” package, to simplify a range of EU regulations. The plan aims to water down and gut several landmark pieces of legislation the EU had passed only a year or two ago.
[ Von der Leyen pledges to slash red tape to boost EU’s competitivenessOpens in new window ]
The changes will exempt all but the biggest companies from new sustainability reporting obligations, which would require firms to produce reports detailing the impact of their business on the environment.
Another law requiring companies to screen their supply chains for human rights abuses or environmental pollution is being delayed.
Von der Leyen has said cutting “red tape” and easing the administrative burden on industry is necessary, to make Europe more economically competitive. “The world of today is arguably not the same as the world one year ago,” an EU official who worked on the changes says.
Stéphane Séjourné, commissioner for industry, told reporters the EU was not taking a “chainsaw” to its regulatory framework, but making rules more business-friendly, without “abandoning” climate goals.
There is no avoiding the fact a lot of the regulations in the crosshairs made up important aspects of the EU’s green deal reforms introduced in recent years, to shift Europe towards climate neutrality.
The push to roll back on this ambition has been led by the European People’s Party (EPP), the centre-right grouping whose members include Fine Gael and about a dozen other parties who are in power across the EU.
The EPP club counts several of the most powerful figures in European politics among its number, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, Von der Leyen herself, and now the likely next chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz.
Manfred Weber, the conservative German politician who leads the EPP group in the European Parliament, has led the efforts to oppose a ban on car combustion engines and laws tackling deforestation and biodiversity loss. The return of the Christian Democratic Union to the top spot in German politics under Merz will tip the balance of power even further rightward.
One point rarely made is that national governments have a seat at the table when EU legislation is being made.
There’s the commission, which proposes laws, and the European Parliament, but then also the Council of the EU. There, ministers and officials from member states can amend, kill or approve regulations and legislation. Often it is the negotiations between national governments at council level where the meat of the dinner is really carved up on any piece of EU legislation.
That doesn’t stop some pointing the finger of blame at the commission later, if it is convenient. “If politicians can dump the blame on the Brussels bureaucrats, they will, if there is some unpopular measure,” Barrett says.
“The problem at European Union level has been that it’s difficult to build a single European political space ... What you really have is 27 different political spaces,” he says.
After an EU directive or regulation is finally signed off, governments usually have two or three years to bring in legislation giving effect to the change. When the national legislation is introduced, it can then always be dressed up as the idea of the government of the day, if they reckon it will be popular.
