Britain is not being strangled in EU red tape, and the volume of legislation coming from Brussels has fallen in recent years. 

By Will Cousins

Two interesting reports have been produced recently that cast doubt on the common claim that Britain is being strangled/smothered/drowned in “EU red tape.” Anti-Europeans hurl around wild estimates of the proportion of British laws originating in Brussels, some as high as 80%. In this view, the only thing anybody seems to do in Brussels is come up with more pointless regulation to load on British business.

So it might surprise you to learn that the proportion of acts exclusively implementing EU decisions is 1.4%. The proportion of UK statutory implements referencing EU law in any way was 12.9%. And as the Labour MEP Richard Corbett has pointed out, the vast majority of these “simply mention the EU or define an EU term for UK purposes.” This is according to a report by the House of Commons library, which is completely non-partisan and has no campaigning agenda whatsoever. In total, an average of 13.3% of UK legislation is EU-affected.

But not only does Brussels legislate less than you think; it legislates less than it did. Democratic Audit, another non-partisan think tank, shows that the number of EU-adopted acts across Europe has fallen precipitously in recent years. From a high of just under 250 in 2008, it had fallen by just 100 in 2013. The legislation passed is also less weighty that it was, having fallen from 500 million words in 2009 to 150 million in 2013.

This has not all happened by magic. The EU is coming round to the British view that less is more, that Brussels should act where it can make a real positive difference, but not tinker for the sake of it. The new Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, put it well: “Citizens expect the EU to make a difference on the big economic and social challenges… they want less EU interference on the issues where Member States are better equipped to give the right response at national and regional level.” And Juncker is not just talking the talk. The Commission’s agenda for 2015 proposes 23 new initiatives, of which just 14 are legislative, and withdraws 80- in stark contrast to previous years.

Britain has long struggled to make the EU more open and business-friendly. We are succeeding in that goal. If we left the EU, we would still have to abide by a great deal of its regulations if we wanted access to the Single Market- just look at Norway, which implements around 75% of EU legislation. Do we want to help make the rules, or do we want to have them made for us?