Without talking about immigration, can anyone tell me......

[BertrandRussell]

........what laws or regulations have been passed by the EU which have been detrimental to the UK?

[MrsHathaway]

I guess fishing quotas? Disproportionate hit to UK fishermen because we actually obey them and to small businesses (because of the way quotas are awarded and maintained).

[MrsHathaway]

(Have postal voted Remain fwiw)

[BeakyMinder]

Air pollution laws. I love asthma and hay fever, how very dare they tell my government to clean up my filthy British air?

Similarly with clean beach laws. We were doing just fine with our sewage and tampon-infested waters before the EU stuck their nose in.

[BritBrit]

there are many bad laws whilst we are in the EU, here are a few

-we are forbidden from signing our own trade deals because under the EU treaties the EU control our trade deal
-Under the EU, EU law is supreme & overrules national law so our courts & Parliament can be overruled by the EU courts
-EU law forces the UK top open up our fishing waters & allow other EU nations to fish our waters losing the UK billions in tax revenue and thousands of jobs

• EU law forces the UK to pay billions into the Common Agricultural policy with most money going to EU farms not UK farms, this also increase the price of food for Brits by 17% (tax payer alliance)
  

-EU law also forces the UK to set minimum VAT prices on good that we can't go lower than e.g. 5% VAT on fuel, so we can't get rid of it if we wanted
-The overall problem with EU law is that the Lisbon Treaty changed the system, the UK used to have a veto over most areas of UK law, Lisbon now requires QMV which is 55% of the vote to pass laws so the Eurozone which is 70% can always outvoted the UK
-EU law forces a common external tariff on the UK so we have to put tariffs on non EU countries which makes good & food particularly from the developing world much more expensive so they are the same price as EU goods

[PeaStalks]

I don't know Bertrand. As someone who was undecided at the start of the referendum discussion I hoped to make an informed decision based on the rights and wrongs of the EU. I hoped the campaign would be informative and not based entirely on the topic of immigration. I wanted to know about Brussels, how it works, who works there, what they do, what they do well and what they do badly. I've read everything. Leaflets, press for and press against.

The kind of information I wanted has been buried in the rhetoric. I am sorry to say that with only a few days to go I am still on the fence though leaning to remain.

[BertrandRussell]

Sorry- I should have said without c&p from a "leave" leaflet. BritBrit- can you pick one and explain the specific impact it's had?

[hamsternumber1]

BritBrit - just because the EU can doesn't mean that it does.

Can you name a time our parliament has been overruled by EU that you strongly disagree with.

What annoys me about this argument is the same can be said for The House of Lords or even the Queen.

Both unelected, both unrepresentative.

The OP asked for actual laws - not principles.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

BritBrits list is perfectly valid to the question. All pretty negative to the UK.

[hamsternumber1]

And what about the grants given to European companies to relocate here?

[Atenco]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_plant

"In some parts of the world, notably the European Union, it is illegal to sell seeds of cultivars that are not listed as approved for sale"

This one really annoys me.

[ClashCityRocker]

Don't know what it's like for other aspects, but in VAT and Customs matters the ECJ don't issue rulings on anything, and certainly don't overrule the government.

Matters on interpretation of EU law are passed to the ECJ in the form of questions.They don't 'hear cases' or 'issue judgements' merely comment on questions of law - ie when we wrote XYZ, we specifically didn't include abc and therefore this regulation doesn't apply.

The answers are then passed to the domestic courts to apply to the situation. Interestingly, the domestic courts aren't made up of elected officials in many cases either.

In fact, EU law works in favour of individuals due to the direct effect; whereas the government cannot rely on Eu directives that it hasn't effected yet, everyone else can.

[ClashCityRocker]

Sorry they do issue rulings, but not on actual cases, just questions on how to apply the law.

[BritBrit]

People asking for a specific example of when the EU overruled the UK, yes there was a big legal case the EU had against the UK called Factortame it ran for more than a decade & destroyed the UK fishing industry, go & read about the Factortame cases

[BertrandRussell]

OK. I'm going to rephrase my question.

Can anyone tell me of something that has actually happened because of the UK's membership of the EU that has been detrimental to the UK? A specific example of the impact of one of BritBrit's list, maybe?

[BritBrit]

how about the cost of food, that is a clear example of EU policy, the cost of food & the weekly shop is 17% more expensive because of EU farming policy

www.iea.org.uk/blog/abolish-the-cap-let-food-prices-tumble

[MrsHathaway]

Under the EU, EU law is supreme & overrules national law so our courts & Parliament can be overruled by the EU courts

Only when EU laws apply - not just arbitrarily. That is, as a higher court appealed to when a British court is alleged to have applied EU law incorrectly.

I would be interested to read any actual detail about Brit's assertions.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

I can't replace my excellent strength vacuum cleaner so my carpets are full of dog hair. Bloody grrr. That sort of thing?

[MrsHathaway]

I highly suspect certain staple foods including milk and cheese would be prohibitively expensive if we left the EU because of EU farming subsidies being about the only thing propping up British farmers in some regions.

[hamsternumber1]

BritBrit

The EU definitely has its flaws - but I don't see how our farming industry, or our food prices would be better off outside the EU.

And even if our food was marginally cheaper, the rise in the cost of everything else, devaluation of the pound will counteract that.

[ClashCityRocker]

The CAP seems to be less fiscally distorted now - the 17% quoted is for the years 2000-2010.

Current estimates are around 2% - although given the amount coming from the eu it would be likely that should we leave we would be paying more than that.

[Atenco]

but I don't see how our farming industry, or our food prices would be better off outside the EU
But you might be able to buy different varieties, that would be a boon.

[ClashCityRocker]

Even the farmers seem pretty undecided about the EU referendum.

If CAP has such a negative impact, after taking into account the subsidies they receive back, I would expect more to be voting to leave?

NFU polls indicate a fairly strong vote for remain, but that was before Christmas and a large proportion were undecided then.

[Spinflight]

Think of our dairy farmers..

What could have been more ecologically friendly than recycling glass bottles in a local farm and delivering their fresh produce on electric powered vehicles?

It now sounds like a vision of a green future get the cap destroyed it.