Eurocrats' 120 miles of red tape

Last updated at 22:07 02 February 2007

The growing burden of European red tape was laid bare yesterday with the revelation that Brussels has produced 120 miles of legislation since the EU was set up.

A study by the Open Europe think has found that Brussels bureaucrats have produced so many laws - many of them completely unnecessary - that the paperwork weighs more than a tonne, the same as a whale or rhinocerous.

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If all the legislation the EU has passed was laid out lengthways it would be over 120 miles long. Along the M1 it would stretch from London past Nottingham.

The group detailed examples of absurd and costly laws which they say should never have been passed, including directives on the use of ladders, condoms and Wellington boots.

Their report found that a huge increase in the amount of legislation passed by Brussels in the last 10 years means that there are now twice as many pages of laws in force as European officials have claimed.

Commission spokesmen have always said that there are 80,000 pages of rules which European companies, charities and individuals have to comply with.

But by totalling up pages in the many volumes of the EU's Official Journal of legislation Open Europe found that the EU has passed a staggering 666,879 pages of laws since its inception in 1957.

The report says: "From the EU's legislative database we were able to establish that 26 per cent of all EU regulations passed since 1957 are still active. So we calculate that there are 170,000 pages of EU legislation currently in force."

Of these 170,000 pages, over 100,000 have been produced in the last ten years. If the EU continues to legislate at the current rate, the amount of legislation in force will have more than doubled by 2020 to 351,000 pages.

Even if you include only the legislation currently in force, at 31.7 miles it stretches further than a marathon and would take the average person more than four hours to run along.

While the weight of the entire Official Journal is over a tonne, the total weight of the parts of the Official Journal that are currently in force is 285 kg.

If the laws passed by Brussels were piled up, they would stand higher than Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.

Open Europe condemned some of the most absurd and costly EU laws, including the noise at work directive, which forced teachers to assess how noisy school children can be, and the Working at Height Directive, which means that a ladder can only be used if a risk assessment considers it to be so low risk that an alternative is not suitable.

The rule forced one priest to pay an expert £1,300 to change a lighbulb in his church.

In 1999, Brussels issued a 50 page long directive on the use of condoms.

A separate document targeted Wellington boots, which now come with a 24 page user's manual in accordance with the EU Directive for Personal Protective Equipment. The booklet is printed in 10 languages and gives advice on risk assessment, storage conditions, life expectancy, washing in a mild detergent, resistance to electricity, cold weather and oil, but not water.

Users are advised to try each boot for fitting before use. Even the amount of energy absorbed by the heels is recorded. The manufacturers are required to test their boots twice a month at EU approved laboratories to ensure they comply with the standards.

More seriously, Working Time Regulations have cost the UK around £16bn since its introduction, forcing many hospitals to scale back the number of hours doctors can work, adding significant extra costs to the NHS.

Open Europe Deputy Chairman Derek Scott, Tony Blair’s former Economic Advisor, said: "The growing burden of EU over-regulation is a serious problem for businesses and even voluntary groups. The EU needs to be redesigned to make it possible to roll back some of the unnecessary legislation."

The new research comes after a poll of 1,000 British Chief Executives in October found that a majority felt that the costs of EU regulation now outweighed the benefits that the EU's single market provided for their company.

Even EU officials acknowledge that the EU's failure to tackle the ever increasing amount of red tape.

The EU Industry Commissioner Gunter Verheugen admitted last year that European laws now cost business £405 billion a year. That figure represents 5.5 per cent of total wealth generated in the EU every year. It is the equivalent of losing the entire output of a country like the Netherlands every year.

Shadow Europe Minister Graham Brady said: "This is a demonstration of the enormous burden of EU red tape that is being born by British buisiness. It shows how vital it is for Britain's competitiveness that the next Conservative Government is able to restore British national control over social and employment law."

The Tories have pledged to pull out of the European Social Chapter.