Influence on EU legislation

[AugustaFinkNottle]

Interesting point nicked from my Facebook feed:

The EU influences us whether we're in or out. Currently we have some influence back. The example I'm closest to is animal welfare legislation. Brits didn't like battery cages, sow stalls, veal crates... We were a country who wanted to up our own game, and via the EU we helped convince most of our continent to do the same. We implemented improved animal legislation in our own country and most of it was adopted almost word for word as EU directives. Battery cages and similar were banned, food was better labelled, and many millions of animals were more protected than before.

Without EU membership, our voice would have been from the outskirts and adoption of better standards would surely not have spread so far. We would still be buying poorly labelled animal products of an extremely miserable provenance.

Furthermore, an interesting point regarding sovereignty, would we even have been able to improve our own standards?! If we'd unilaterally done so, many of our farmers, pet breeders etc would have been driven out of business, having to compete with the rest of Europe on an uneven playing field.

This can't be the only example of the influence we can have. It shows that our influence can be twofold: we can stick up for our own values AND we can help make a large chunk of the world outside our island a better place. Warty as the EU is, there are good things about being at the table.

[Kelandry]

Hasn't stopped bullfighting.

[AugustaFinkNottle]

And?

[nearlyhellokitty]

Bullfighting is counted as a 'sovereignty' issue... damn EU respecting other cultures :-)

[nearlyhellokitty]

This has also been the case for ambitious climate change policy by the way.

On clean beaches I think the EU legislation made the UK to stop pumping sewage so works both ways as you say.