Stevenson Calls for Fewer Regulations from Brussels

Banff & Buchan SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson, has called for fewer regulations from the European Union.

The MSP said that too many regulations are now coming out of Brussels, and that many of these have no tangibly positive effect on people’s everyday lives.

Speaking at a meeting of the Banff & Buchan Constituency SNP at the weekend, Mr Stevenson said:

“The issue that makes the biggest contribution to anti-European feeling in this country is the number and extent of EU regulations and laws that affect businesses and people. The problem is that all those regulations and laws arise from general principles to which the UK Government has happily signed up, such as those that are designed to free up competition and to improve transport and the environment.

“However, do we have to translate those general principles into quite so many and quite such detailed regulations? Would not the EU be just as effective if, say, 33 per cent of those regulations had never seen the light of day? Would we be any worse off as a country or as individuals?

“Although some of the stories about regulations that are allegedly put forward by the EU, such as the misleading story about the straightness of bananas, have a dubious basis in fact, it is true to say that the European Union promulgates thousands of new rules every year.

“In certain cases, European regulations may prove to be contrary to the interests of people and businesses in Banff & Buchan, but in general the problem is the sheer volume of laws that have minimal affect upon the quality of life of people in Scotland, except to make that life more complicated than it need be.

“If the European ideal is not to continue to suffer from a very bad press, then, as a first step, the EU must re-examine the regulations that they publish, and eliminate the hundreds of unnecessary ones.”