Yahoo News Cut the EU red tape choking Britain after Brexit to set the country free from the shackles of Brussels
Britain must sweep aside thousands of needless EU regulations after Brexit to free the country from the shackles of Brussels, a coalition of senior MPs and business leaders have demanded.
On Wednesday, Theresa May will start the formal process of leaving the EU when she invokes Article 50, giving her a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to rejuvenate the UK economy.
Today, the Telegraph calls on the Conservative Party to promise a bonfire of EU red tape in its 2020 manifesto to put Britain on a radically different course.
The proposal has the backing of the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, who believes the Tories should promise at the next election to “whittle away” unnecessary rules, reducing the “burden” on businesses and citizens.
He said: “Let us leave and then the Conservative Party at the next election needs to say, ‘we can reduce the cost on business and on individuals by reducing regulations which will improve our competitiveness, our productivity and therefore ultimately our economy.'"
According to a House of Commons report, ministers will have to import 19,000 EU rules and regulations on to our statute books as part of the Great Repeal Bill, which will take shape in a white paper published on Thursday.
At a glance | What is Article 50?
EU regulations are estimated to cost Britain a total of more than £120 billion per year. The Common Agricultural Policy alone reportedly costs £10 billion in direct costs and by inflating food prices.
After Brexit occurs in 2019, the merits of each regulation will be assessed before a decision is made on whether to jettison it or not.
Lord Lawson, the former Chancellor, said the Conservatives must then swiftly seize the chance to “transform the British economy” by cutting “massive” numbers of EU regulations.
Business leaders and doctors hope to see the back of the working time directive, which imposes such strict conditions on shift patterns that mean workforces cannot be as flexible as they need to be and surgeons say prevents them gaining vital training.
Builders have been frustrated by rules on preserving newts, which are classed as “endangered” in Europe even though they are thriving in the UK. Meanwhile, consumers have been angered by rules which have banned the most powerful vacuum cleaners and forced householders to use dim energy-saving lightbulbs.
Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Duncan Smith says that once Brexit is completed in 2019, “we should prepare to carry out a root and branch review of the costs of the regulatory burden of its intrusions into the daily lives of the citizens and businesses of the UK”.
Owen Paterson, the former environment secretary, said the Government now had a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to scrap such hated regulations as the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy and replace them with legislation “tailored to what is right for us”.
Lord Lawson said the Thatcher government’s wide-ranging programme of deregulation in the 1980s “transformed the performance of the British economy”. He added: “Once out of the EU, we have the opportunity to do this on an even larger scale with the massive corpus of EU regulation. We must lose no time in seizing that opportunity.”
According to a study by the Eurosceptic think-tank Open Europe, ridding Britain of needless EU regulations will save the economy £13 billion a year.
Stephen Booth, director of policy and research at Open Europe, said: “EU regulation places a significant cost on the UK economy and there is scope for savings, so we would call on parties to commit to repealing unnecessary red tape.
"Brexit offers an opportunity to tailor rules to the specific nature of the UK economy, rather than the one-size-fits-all approach characterised by EU regulation.”
In the US, President Donald Trump has adopted a similar approach by appointing his senior White House adviser Jared Kushner to lead a new office of American innovation.
Lord Tebbit, a former member of the Thatcher cabinet, said: “I am all for taking advantage of the opportunity Brexit gives us to do a substantial job of deregulation.”
Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “Business communities across the UK always like to see the back of red tape. But they want any change to be considered carefully.”
On Wednesday, Sir Tim Barrow, the UK’s permanent representative in Brussels, will hand deliver a letter from Theresa May to Donald Tusk, President of the European Council.
The letter will contain notification of Britain’s intention to leave the EU by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, starting the clock on two years of Brexit negotiations.
The news came as David Davis, Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, suggested that Britain could leave the EU without paying anything like the reported £52billon bill.
Brexit | Who will David Davis be negotiating with?
He told the BBC's Question Time special on Monday night, said: "I don’t know about 50bn. I’ve seen 40, 50, 60, I’ve seen no explanation for any of them.
"We will, of course, meet our international obligations. But we expect also our rights to be respected too.
"So I don’t think we’re going to be seeing that sort of money change hands.
"We will meet our international obligations, whatever that turns out to be. But that is nothing like [what] we are talking about here."
Five EU directives we'll be glad to see the back of
EU working time directive
The directive, which has been phased into British law since 1998, is a source of acute frustration for surgeons and medical staff. Many believe it deprives them of the chance to perform enough procedures to become fully competent because of the strictures it imposes on shift patterns.
The directive guarantees employment terms such as a maximum 48-hour week and four weeks of paid holiday per year, as well as rules on hours of rest for shift workers.
While individual workers can ask to be exempted from the directive, NHS trusts are obliged to draw up rotas that meet the rules. This often means that doctors who are on call, but who sleep undisturbed through their shift, are nevertheless sent home “to rest” when they could take part in training.
Bendy bananas
In 1994, the European Commission drew up regulation 2257/94, which stated that bananas in general should as a minimum be “free from malformation or abnormal curvature of the fingers”. Under the regulation, “extra” class bananas must be “free from defects”, while class 1 bananas can have “slight defects of shape” and class 2 bananas are allowed to have “defects of shape”. The regulation was repeatedly highlighted by Boris Johnson during the EU referendum campaign.
Green energy
The EU renewable energy directive requires the UK to generate 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 – up from just three per cent when the directive was adopted in 2009. That’s not just electricity but also energy used in heating and transport.
The target has led to Government subsidies for renewable power sources such as wind, solar and biomass power plants, which are ultimately paid for by customers through their energy bills. The National Audit Office estimated that green energy subsidies will cost every household £110 a year by 2020.
Great crested newt
The great crested newt is endangered in some parts of Europe, but remains fairly common in England. However, under the EU habitats directive, which covers all 28 member states, they are a protected species.
If even a small number are found, newts have to be fenced, trapped and relocated in the spring, which can cost £10,000 even for a small project. In 2011, George Osborne, the former Chancellor, said the directive placed “ridiculous costs on British businesses”.
Incandescent lightbulbs
In 2009, the European Commission announced plans to phase out traditional incandescent lightbulbs amid concerns that 95 per cent of the energy that goes into them gets turned into heat rather than light. However, their replacements, LED and fluorescent bulbs, while far more energy-efficient, have proved unpopular because they give off a cold, unnatural light compared to their predecessors.
Best vacuum cleaners
In September 2014, the European Commission introduced new energy efficiency rules which banned many of the best vacuum cleaners on sale.
Companies were prohibited from manufacturing or importing any vacuums with motors above 1,600 watts. The deadline led to a rush on sales of the best performing vacuum cleaners. Of seven “best buy” ratings awarded by Which? since January 2013, five of them have motors of more than 1,600 watts.
From September this year the limit will be reduced to just 900 watts. The commission said the rules would help cut energy usage and lower people’s bills.
