Conservative MEPs will support Cameron's health and safety crackdown
Posted, December 01, 2009 @ 00:00
Conservative MEPs will support Cameron's health and safety crackdown
Brussels, 1st December 2009 -- Conservative MEPs will continue to oppose overzealous health and safety laws from Brussels, Timothy Kirkhope MEP, Conservative leader in the European Parliament, said today as David Cameron announced his intention to curb the 'over-the-top' health and safety culture in the UK.
Mr Kirkhope said:
"The European Commission too often thinks that risk can be legislated against.
"If someone falls off a ladder the EU's response is that a new law is required. If you oppose that law, you are treated as though you had pushed them off. This kind of culture of legislation rather than common sense is destroying our small businesses.
"There is a strong perception that many of these laws are interpreted in the loosest possible way across Continental Europe whilst in the UK officious inspectors enforce such laws to the letter. We need less legislation from the EU but we also need less officiousness in the UK.
"We have had a number of successes in recent years in thwarting Labour MEPs' attempts to scrap our opt-out from the Working Time Directive and in preventing the EU from legislating against the effects of sunshine but there is still a constant drip of new laws. Conservative MEPs will continue to fight against European health and safety laws that go over-the-top and ultimately we will continue to argue that such laws should be made by national governments, not the EU."