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European Union Laws (EU)

Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Like the UL about Baa Baa Black Sheep (which was dealt with in the FT's Mythconceptions) there have been various stories in the more Europhobic British press which suggest crazy laws being considered by the European parliament like:

1. Bendy bananas being banned.

2. Something about the Great British Sausage.

3. Not being allowed to call our chocolate 'chocolate' but something like 'emulsified milk and choclate-based snack'.

4. Renaming places that were named to commemorate conflicts with other EU states - like Waterloo station in London (and worse my dad was born and brought up in Waterloo in Liverpool which has acres of streets named after various people who fought in the battle - e.g. Bluecher St. after a Prussian General. I think the road he was born and brought up in would have to be changed too).

but:

1. How many of these are 'true' (more realistically closer to the truth on the sliding scale of factualism ;) )?

2. The UK isn't the only place with scepticism about further European union do other countries have similar tales?

Despite the fact that some of these tales have been doing the rounds for decades we still have bendy bananas, etc. - was there ever a grain of truth (like some kind of proposal from a committee) or did the tabloids make them up?

Emps
 
I cast my net a bit wider and got:

Euromyths: Fact and fiction in EU law

LONDON (CNN) -- With 80,000 pages of treaties, regulations, directives and opinions, the EU's vast body of law has often been the subject of debate and rumour in the European press.

The British press in particular has reported EU law as jeopardizing everything from traditional Christmas lunches, to the Queen as head of state.

Many stories are said by officials to have resulted from complex rules being misunderstood or muddled. Others, officials say, are completely untrue -- including the story that bananas sold within the EU must not be excessively curved.

Geoffrey Martin, the spokesman for the EU's representative office in the UK, says the "bent-banana syndrome" arose from a reporter's question at a 1992 news conference at which European officials announced the need to create a single market, with single standards, among the 15 member states.

"Some wise cracker asked: 'What does this mean for the curvature of bananas?'" Martin recalled. The question stuck and a myth was born.

But eight years on, Martin says, EU realities have borne out the fallacy of the banana scare. "Notwithstanding the fact that bananas were going to be required to be straight, bananas have remained curved."

Symmetrical Christmas trees

EU officials have fought back with brochure campaigns and a website designed to dispel some of the more insidious reports.

Martin's office alone has published two brochures, entitled: "Do you believe all that you read in the newspapers?" and a sequel, issued in 1995: "Do you still believe all that you read in the newspapers?"

Among the erroneous rules that have been reported are stipulations forcing fishermen to wear hairnets aboard their fishing boats (in fact, only general sanitary rules are prescribed), and a rule enforcing a standard length for condoms (actual efforts at standardisation focus on quality of condoms, not length).

It was also reported that Christmas trees would be required to be symmetrical in shape, have regularly-spaced needles, identical roots and be of the same colour.

The EU acknowledged a possible reason for the Yuletide myth: The Christmas Tree Growers Association of Western Europe -- an independent organisation -- had drawn up a series of specifications for its own trees, aimed at enhancing their brand image.

Martin has observed growing acrimony over Europe in press coverage, with the approach of British elections (due before 2002), and the intensification of the debate over whether the UK should join the single currency.

Trevor Kavanagh, political editor of The Sun newspaper, a right-leaning UK tabloid with almost four million daily readers, says his newspaper has tried to focus on weighty issues in its European coverage.

"I think British newspapers by and large give an accurate representation of what is happening in Europe. We tend to deal with real issues, like taxes, democracy and bureaucracy in the EU."

He says that does not mean The Sun is not sceptical about Europe. "Our fundamental view of Europe is that it is undemocratic and bureaucratic."

Jo Groebel, Director General of the European Institute for the Media, a press-monitoring organisation based in Duesseldorf, said: "The British press is probably not so much opinion-making as populist -- they are reflecting what they perceive as the popular opinion. There is still this deeply-rooted suspicion (in Britain) of everything European."

Groebel said he saw much less of an anti-European bias in both the French and German press.

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/eurounion/story/laws/

see also:

http://www.labmeps-emids.fsnet.co.uk/boston standard mar.htm

http://www.nickclegg.org/Press_Releases/playground-euromyth.htm

http://www.southampton.gov.uk/buseuro/eurobulletin/euromyth.html

And some examples of the myths:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2002/06/29/do2902.xml

Good Lord I never realised how many of them there are - 'Euromyth' in Google is turning up the goodies!!

Is there something more sinister at work?

Rupert Murdoch and Conrad Black own a lot of these Europhpbic papers and are largely based in north America and the UK moving to the Euro could have some disaterous consequences for the US in the long term (if Brent Crude, the oil standard, was priced in Euros then OPEC might move away from the dollar cutting the Americans off at the knees):

http://www.monbiot.com/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=572

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Ooooooooooo I knew it rang a bell:

I think the first thing we must recognise is that the "patriotism" which informs the attacks on the European Union is fake. The newspapers responsible for most of the hysteria about straight bananas and regulated sausages are owned and run by a Canadian (Conrad Black) and an Australian with American citizenship (Rupert Murdoch). These men seem to care nothing for the "British values" their papers claim to defend. Their conglomerates are based in North America, and they have much less of a presence in continental Europe. They would appear, therefore, to possess a powerful incentive for dragging Britain away from the European Union, and handing it, alive and kicking, to the US.

http://www.monbiot.com/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=593

Emps
 
AndroMan: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh excellent thanks for that - I was fishing around for it but failed to track it down.

[edit: Oh there is some great stuff there - I think my favourite must be:

" EU changes the definition of an ‘island "

http://www.cec.org.uk/press/myths/myth114.htm

although this is good:

"Politically correct Eurocrats say Santa must be a woman"

http://www.cec.org.uk/press/myths/myth101.htm

They should consider that ban on shandy though ;) ]

Emps
 
As I recall some of them were correct though- I think british chocolate had so few cocoa solids that it didn't actually count as chocolate from a european point of view, I think sausages had to have a minimum amount of meat in too, rather than just being made from brain, eyeball and the other cuts that were too low quality to go into dog food.

I'm fairly sure that the utterly poor quality of a lot of british mass-market foods was a contributory factor. I think in most cases the food manufacturers involved have sorted it out, slightly, to be in line with the guidelines, and maybe we have better sausages and chocolate for it...
 
if Brent Crude, the oil standard, was priced in Euros then OPEC might move away from the dollar cutting the Americans off at the knees):
Some bearing on the Iraqi war then?
 
Breakfast: Yeah those cases are dealt with on the page Androman provided e.g.:

http://www.cec.org.uk/press/myths/myth17.htm

On this:

I'm fairly sure that the utterly poor quality of a lot of british mass-market foods was a contributory factor.

I think that is what gets me - time and again we find out the really crappy standard of what passes for ordinary grub in the UK (don't even get me started on chicken nuggets!!) but we want cheap and tasty food and don't really care about what is in it or what has had to be done to it to produce it cheaply (BSE, warm water prawns). I do think we are getting more concerned about our food with the rise in organic food, farmers markets and the opposition ot GM food (even if the US are going to take us to the WTO over it).

brian ellwood:

Some bearing on the Iraqi war then?

Not directly but if you dig too deeply into things (Chechnya, Bosnia, etc.) then you can usually find some kind of geopolitcal maneuvering related to oil. I assume it would give the US influence at the table in OPEC. It might have a bit more bearing on things like the financing and promotion of the anti-Euro debate now and increasingly in the future (and on a longer term projection the US making us the 51st State for our own good). Pos. something for another thread ;)

[OK the implications for oil are discussed here:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11485

so we can keep this focused on EU laws ;) ]

Emps
 
Breakfast said:
As I recall some of them were correct though- I think british chocolate had so few cocoa solids that it didn't actually count as chocolate from a european point of view, I think sausages had to have a minimum amount of meat in too, rather than just being made from brain, eyeball and the other cuts that were too low quality to go into dog food.

I'm fairly sure that the utterly poor quality of a lot of british mass-market foods was a contributory factor. I think in most cases the food manufacturers involved have sorted it out, slightly, to be in line with the guidelines, and maybe we have better sausages and chocolate for it...
You'd never get away with passing the plastic tubes, filled with sawdust, fat, flavouring, colour, water and preservatives, as sausages (or 'worst'), over this side of the North Sea.

Mind you the Dutch have their own, deep fried horrors: 'frikandelen', 'broodje met croquet', etc. ;)
 
Waterlood of Rubbish

Ahhhhhh I found the news on the renaming:

Nelson's Waterloo?

Leader
Wednesday October 22, 2003
The Guardian

Trafalgar Day passed off peacefully yesterday. The 198th anniversary was marked by nothing more controversial than an early morning radio spat between two historians about Lord Nelson's qualities as a husband and by the usual Royal Navy ceremonies around the world.

But can it all last? Next year, plans are afoot to celebrate the centenary of the Entente Cordiale of 1904. The bicentenary of the British-French battle follows a year later. We are surely about to hear earnest calls to tone down the celebrations of the famous naval victory over a nation with whom we are now once more European partners.

It is only a few days since the head of the EU's European investment fund, Francis Carpenter, outraged British tabloids by suggesting that it may now be time to change the names of such places as Waterloo station and Trafalgar Square in the interests of international amity.

One of the many difficulties with the proposal is that it cuts both ways. If London loses Waterloo, what is Paris to do with its streets and stations commemorating Austerlitz, Rivoli, Wagram and the rest? And if Trafalgar is no longer to be commemorated, what is to happen to the many streets around this country that bear the names of other conflicts.

In the London directory alone, there is an Agincourt Road, a Culloden Street, and Magdala Avenue and a Naseby Close, to name but four. Around the nation, there is hardly a city without its Alma or Sebastopol Roads, its Blenheim Gardens or its Quebec Street. The very fact that George Orwell renamed it Victory Square in his novel 1984 should fire us to keep Trafalgar Square just the way it is - with a statue not just of Lord Nelson, but of Nelson Mandela in it, too.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1067953,00.html

and there is some great over reaction:

‘I’ll leave if they change names’

By Bede MacGowan

“WATERLOOD of rubbish” is the message from residents furious at suggestions to change historic place names to avoid offending our European friends.

Ex-servicemen have reacted with horror at the proposal by the chief of the European Investment Fund Francis Carpenter.

Writing in the French newspaper Le Figaro, Mr Carpenter said places such as Waterloo station, Trafalgar Square and the Churchill Theatre should be renamed.

Acting chairman of the Royal British Legion’s Chislehurst branch Charlie Carter, 83, says he has never heard such a bad suggestion.

The former Rifle Brigade soldier said: “It’s a bloody awful idea and it wouldn’t go down well with any of the ex-servicemen or the boys serving. It’s a joke. History is what makes a country.

“It’s been said before. They don’t like it up ’em and if they try to change anything like that, we’ll oppose it. They can stuff it.” The grandfather-of-nine added he would consider leaving the country if it became reality. I’m 83 but I suppose I could live with my pals in Australia. This country has got too liberal. You wonder what the boys all died for,” he said.

The Churchill Theatre was named in memory of Sir Winston Churchill in 1972 after a vote by Bromley councillors.

He was made an honorary Freeman of Beckenham and, as leader of the country during the Second World War, his name will always be associated with RAF Biggin Hill, when he said after the Battle of Britain: “Never, in the field of human conflict, has so much been owed by so many to so few.” The European Commission distanced itself from the comments made by 60-year-old Briton Mr Carpenter, who has a French wife and works for a Luxembourg-based bank which provides loans for EU projects. A spokesman said: “We don’t have the power to tell anybody to change place names, nor should we.” What do you think? Write to News Shopper, Crest View Drive, Petts Wood, BR5 1BT or email newsroom @london.newsquest.co.uk

Source

The guy is "head of the EU's European investment fund" but I don't see how this is official policy. I suspect we would be better off if they kept their opinions to themselves - esp. as they are so unhelpful ;) Its worth noting that he is British though. It seems like it was the telegraph which stirred up this fuss:

http://www.megastar.co.uk/meganews/news/2003/10/16/sMEG01MTA2NjI5Mzk1MDA.html

See also:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_829236.html

Link

Link

Link

Link

http://www.news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1147422003

Its sounds like a lot of fuss about nothing and this reaction seems about right:

Place-Name Banker Meets his Waterloo

By Geoff Meade, Europe Editor, PA News in Brussels


The European Commission reacted with horror this afternoon to the suggestion that British place names might be changed to avoid offending Continental sensitivities.

The idea came from a 60-year-old Briton who works for a Luxembourg-based bank which provides loans for EU projects.

Francis Carpenter, 60, wrote in a French newspaper that it would be in the interests of European harmony if “offensive” British names commemorating battles lost by the French were eradicated.

Mr Carpenter, employed by the European Investment Bank, suggested that French visitors to London might be “astonished” to find themselves arriving at a railway station called Waterloo.

Similarly, Germans and Austrians arriving in Paris might be uncomfortable seeing place names marking Napoleon’s victories against their countries.

He even called for national mottos to be replaced by one European motto, and for national bank holidays to be streamlined.

A Commission spokesman was unimpressed: “Who is this man? He doesn’t work for us. Of course he’s entitled to his opinions but they should not be considered as proposals from the Commission or any other EU institution.

“The idea that these suggestions would be taken up as EU proposals is utter rubbish. We don’t have the power to tell anybody to change their place names and nor should we.”


Mr Carpenter’s article in Le Figaro suggested that names such as Waterloo Station should be renamed to give them “a more European theme“.

He went on: “Our country has known countless victories over our neighbours and the streets and squares named after these victories risk offending a European youth that we should be trying to unite.”

In the past, French politicians and Euro MPs have suggested that Waterloo Station is not the most tactful name to some people’s sensibilities.

But there has never been a serious proposal to change the name – or any other place names in the country which reflect past conflicts and victories.

Mr Carpenter has worked for the European Investment Bank for nearly 30 years and has a French wife.

http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2058837

Emps
 
AndroMan said:
Mind you the Dutch have their own, deep fried horrors: 'frikandelen', 'broodje met croquet', etc. ;)

I LOVE frikandelen, and the beautiful hot peanut sauce you can sometimes get to smother your frites!

Full-on nostalgia :)

German Frikadellen are tops too.

Euro-food is delish - closer union NOW.
 
.........and being able to eat horse without being viewed as an unprincipled monster. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm horse.

On the naming front my father was relieved about the naming thing but was wondering how it might have worked for streets commemorating our military defeats at the hand sof people like the French like Hastings Road (which is in Waterloo)??

Emps
 
My ex-flatmate used to complain that EU regulations had put an end to rum & raisin flavour yogurt, you definitely can't get it anymore but I'm damned if I can dogpile up anything that gives a reason for this...
 
Another Euromyth?

European Law Could Ban Distribution Of Old Testament

By Mike Wendling
CNSNews.com London Bureau Chief
April 24, 2002

London (CNSNews.com) - A proposed European Union law against racism could ban some children's stories and even the Old Testament, a British legislator said Wednesday.

Lord Richard Scott told colleagues that a suggested harmonization of European anti-racism laws would "almost certainly" ban children's stories such as the Biggles series, a popular set of British adventure novels.

Based on a fictional World War I pilot, the books were written by Capt. W. E. Johns starting in the 1930s. Main characters in the novels refer to "natives," "coons," "half-castes" and "half-breeds" and use nationality-specific slurs such as "Huns" and "Japs."

The EU proposal could also censor religious texts, Lord Scott said.

"It would probably cover the distribution of the Old Testament as well," he said. "I don't know what the government's reaction to this particular proposal will be. I imagine it will be a mixture of horror and laughter."

As an independent Law Lord, Scott is part of a special subgroup of Britain's upper chamber of Parliament with expertise on legal matters. The Law Lords also serve as a final court of appeal for certain judicial cases.

Lord Scott was speaking during a debate on proposals for a Europe-wide arrest warrant. He said that offenses of racism and xenophobia under the EU law needed to be made "much more specific."

"If any member state creates offences on these lines ... we in this country would be expected to extradite the accused under a (universal) European arrest warrant," he said.

Home Office minister Lord Rooker of the ruling Labor Party said a bill in line with the EU proposals would be introduced in Parliament before the legislature's summer recess begins in August.

The EU legislation, introduced in the wake of Sept. 11, would outlaw "public incitement to violence or hatred for racist or xenophobic reasons and directing, supporting or participating in the activities of a racist or xenophobic group." Racism and xenophobia is defined as hatred based on "race, colour, descent, religion or belief, national or ethnic origin."

The proposals will also clamp down on racist web sites, outlawing "public dissemination of racist material by any means, including the Internet."

Conservatives, civil liberties groups and several legal scholars criticized the measure as ill-thought out.

http://www.eclj.org/news/euro_news_020425_distribution.asp

The actual source seems a little odd:

http://www.cnsnews.com

Emps
 
It appears it is older news and a good example of people taking things to their (il)logical extremes. It derives from discussion on the laws for the European Arrest Warrant and laws on Holocaust denial gone into more detail in this article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/04/03/neu03.xml

In fact the only times I have found mention of Lord Scott are over debates about this - lets hope the reform of the House of Lords gets rid of these frothing old duffers ;)

Emps
 
The reason why there are so many "euromyths" passed on and believed is that so many true European directives appear to be pointless, needlessly bureaucratic and couched in euro-babble that the truth is harder to seperate from fiction!
 
Lets be honest, most Europeans would'nt touch British food with a bargepole, the more I go around in mainland Europe the more embaressing it is to be British, (note the way I include all of Britain,when something good to be said I say English;) ).Anywhere you go in Europe the Brits stick out a mile in there bloody nylon football shirts and loutish behaviour (ohh sounds like Mr Angry from Tunbridge Wells:D ), whenever we get to Calias ferry terminal my wife starts to speak to me in German (remakably shes English but can speak another langauge) so that we dont get lumped in with the yobs. We saw the same thing this year on our hols in Florida, the Americans very helpful and polite, the Brits, well, you could here them swearing from a long way off.:cross eye .Sorry I seem to be bitching a lot lately.
 
If you have a non-Glaswegian Scottish accent you seem to be safe enough...
 
We're not banning corgis - EU

We're not banning corgis – check your facts, sighs EU
By Anthony Browne, Brussels Correspondent



HEARD the one about the ban on bendy bananas? The European Commission wishes you hadn’t. Frustrated by the “twisted facts” and “lies” about Europe, the European Commission has begun a counter-offensive against the British media.
As part of its campaign to improve flagging confidence in the European Union, it has set up a website giving detailed rebuttal of stories that it complains leaves readers with a “picture of the EU as a bunch of mad “eurocrats”.



The stories include alleged EU plans to ban advertising slogans such as “Guinness is good for you”, the one about the EU wanting to reduce lottery prizes to a maximum of £60,000 and alleged EU plans to ban corgis and 100 other breeds of dog.

The website is aimed at all European media, but nearly 90 per cent of the stories come from Britain. Most British national papers are criticised — with The Sun and the Daily Mail in the lead — as well as the BBC website. Six articles from The Times are included.

“The British press is quite prepared to report fantasy, and they have a habit of deliberately distorting stuff. But many of them are very funny, and we have a laugh ourselves. We do have a sense of humour,” a Commission official said.

The Commission hopes that targeting the British press — the most influential in Europe — will stop stories from spreading. “Mostly, they start in the British press and spread. The story about pigs needing toys started in Britain and went to Germany and the Czech Republic,” the official said.

The website, called “Get Your Facts Straight”, had been intended for journalists, but Margot Wallstrom, the new Communications Commissioner, whose job is to improve the EU’s image, wants to promote the website to the public. With the European constitution being put to a referendum in 11 member states, the Commission has made a priority of improving public confidence in the EU.

Ms Wallstrom’s spokesman said: “It is useful to remind people of the truth. Our purpose is to ensure there is an informed debate, and this is part of that.”

The Commission is supported by the British Government, which has long complained of Euroscepticism in the British press. The Government’s spokesman in Brussels said: “It’s a good thing if stories are rebutted, but it would be better if journalists reported them right in the first place.”

However, Chris Heaton- Harris, a Conservative member of the European Parliament, said that most of the stories were largely true: “There is no smoke without fire in these stories. Eurosceptics don’t have to make up scare stories, because the Commission does a good job themselves. It’s just another plank in their propaganda battle to win the referendum on the constitution.”

Some of the stories rebutted by the EU did not actually originate with the Commission, but with other European bodies. For example, the story about banning Corgis, reported in the Daily Mail, was based on the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals, which is part of an organisation called the Council of Europe, of which Britain is a member, but which has nothing to do with the European Union.

Many of the other stories are based on supposedly over- zealous interpretation by local authorities or trade associations. The story that pigs would require toys — reported in The Times — was based on an EU directive that pigs should have an “enriched” environment, which the industry took to mean toy provision, which the Government did not dispute. The ban on butchers giving cast-off bones to dogs was based on an EU regulation on the disposal of animal by- products as a way of combating BSE. The Commission insists that “it does not stop a butcher supplying bones to individual dog-owners for pets’ consumption, provided the bone has not already been thrown away”. Ceredigion County Council took the edict seriously and wrote to butchers ordering them not to give bones to pets.

Sometimes issues are represented as compulsory, whereas they are voluntary. The Commission produced a document called Made in the EU Origin Marking, which considered having a “Made in the EU” label, but it insists that it did not contain plans to actually ban the label “Made in Britain”.

Eurosceptics argue that the EU often introduces voluntary plans and then makes them compulsory.

DEBATE

Are all the euromyths really myths?
Send your e-mails to [email protected]



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/ ... 59,00.html
 
The stories include alleged EU plans to ban advertising slogans such as “Guinness is good for you”,

hasn't that been banned for years?
 
In today's Western Morning News (though, oddly I found it on their website with the date of 15th Jan!):
FISHERMEN IN CRISIS TALKS WITH MPS AND MINISTER

11:00 - 15 January 2005
Liberal Democrat politicians are to meet fishermen at Padstow to discuss a European Commission closure of their main fishing ground which will cause them hardship and possible ruin.

A decision in December by the EC, endorsed by the British Government, to protect cod stocks means the closure of a huge fishing ground off Cornwall for the first three months of the year.

But while the gill netters from Padstow and Newquay are forced to go much further out to sea or remain in port, the bigger beam trawlers still have access to the same area for one month.

This is because Belgium persuaded the EU that their beam trawlers would only be off Trevose to catch Dover sole.


North Cornwall Liberal Democrat candidate Dan Rogerson is calling on the Government to intervene to allow limited access to the fishing ground for smaller, local, under-ten-metre vessels.

Following the meeting in Padstow on Monday, Liberal Democrat Fisheries spokesman Andrew George of St Ives will take local fishermen's concerns to the Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw at a meeting in London on Tuesday.

They will be joined by the North Cornwall Lib-Dem MP Paul Tyler, and the chief executive of the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation, Paul Trebilcock.

Mr Rogerson said: "Ministers need to take a step back. It's absurd to allow foreign vessels in, but not local boats."
(My emphasis)

The CFP has been a nonsense from start to finish. No myth. Fish stocks destroyed. UK should have (and still should) opt out of the CFP and then manage our own territorial waters.
 
no cad

Rynner is correct. A similar situation applies in "Irish" waters which are plundered by fleets from other EU States. The Irish Naval Service concentrates on hassling Irish registered ships as it is easier to check if they are over quota.
 
Follow up today - a glimmer of common sense at last?
SMALL BOATS' FISHING BAN TO BE REVIEWED

11:00 - 19 January 2005
Controversial plans to close a key Westcountry fishing ground to local boats are to be reconsidered, the fisheries minister Ben Bradshaw said yesterday.

The European Commission's plans for the "Trevose Box" off the North Cornwall coast were branded "bizarre" last week, after it emerged they would ban small local boats but allow huge foreign trawlers to carry on fishing for part of the year.

Cornish fishermen warned that the viability of the industry in small ports like Padstow could be jeopardised by the plans, which were signed off by the Commission last month.

However, representatives emerged from a meeting with Mr Bradshaw in London yesterday saying they were "reassured" that the problem would be dealt with. Padstow skipper John Townrow, whose 9.5 metre boat Helen Jane II is now technically banned from his local fishing ground, said he was optimistic that a solution would be found.

"It was a very positive meeting," he said. "Mr Bradshaw has assured us that the situation is going to be looked into and that he will seek clarification of the rules. It will be on the agenda for the next Fisheries Council meeting and hopefully this problem will then be rectified, otherwise this problem will recur every year and the effect of that would be very severe."

Ironically, the proposals for restrictions on the Trevose Box were first put forward by Cornish fishermen who wanted large trawlers banned from the area for three months a year, to allow the recovery of fish stocks, particularly cod.

At a late-night meeting of European fisheries ministers last month, the plan was "botched" - with the result that the closure was imposed on the wrong area, and the local inshore fleet, which has minimal impact on stocks, was also banned.

To add insult to injury, the Commission proposed to allow huge Belgian beam trawlers to operate for one month of the three-month closure period.

Paul Trebilcock, chief executive of the Cornish Fish Producers' Organisation, welcomed the reassurances from Mr Bradshaw but added: "The Commission and the Government are looking to the industry to come up with management plans like this, but how can the industry have confidence if they are going to be distorted in this way?"

Yesterday's meeting was also attended by the Lib-Dem fisheries spokesman Andrew George, the Lib-Dem MP for North Cornwall Paul Tyler and the Labour MP for Falmouth and Camborne Candy Atherton.

Mr George said that the regulation, as drafted, would "undermine the livelihoods" of small fishermen right along the North Cornwall coast, from St Ives to Port Isaac. But he said he was "pleased" with the outcome of yesterday's meeting. Ms Atherton also hailed the "positive" outcome, as did Mr Tyler.

Mr Tyler also said it was vital that the chaotic system for setting European fishing rules was reformed so that such decisions did not slip through again.

He said: "Fifteen to twenty small-scale businesses in my constituency could have been wiped out by this last-minute decision, made late at night when hardly anyone noticed. The process is ridiculous."
It's the big boats fishing hundreds of miles from their home ports that decimate fish stocks (not to mention burning large quantities of fuel in the process). Is Belgium very near to the Bristol Channel? You'll need a small-scale chart to show both areas!

I have worked as a fisherman, and the idea that the Belgian boats were only trawling for Dover Sole, and this wouldn't affect cod stocks is a fib - fishing for both species involves dredging the bottom, so they could catch both.

I have long said that the solution to conserving fishstocks is to ban boats over a certain length altogether - say boats over 45 feet. Such boats would be limited in their fishing range automatically, by not having enough fuel capacity, nor the fish-hold room for big catches.
 
The Sunday Tel. reports the Trevose box nonsense, and adds a story about 2 Hastings fishermen who were recently fined for breaking an EU regulation that no-one had heard of.

The yearly cod quota had been arbitrarily divided into 12 monthly allowances, even though this is not supposed to apply to boats launched off the beach, and they had exceeded this quota in September...

(This is a double nonsense, since fishing for different species takes place during different parts of the year. Fishermen change their nets and gear quite frequently as different species come into season.)

The Judge ruled that DEFRA was entitled to interpret EU law this way, and the fishermen's barristers advised them to plead guilty... :evil:
 
Churches facing unholy row about threat to 'toxic' organs

Pipe organs could vanish from the county’s cathedrals and churches if new EU regulations go ahead unchallenged.

The historic music of the parishes could be silenced, while a long established organ manufacturer faces closure due to new directives from the European Union banning the use of toxic metals in electronic equipment.

The news has kick-started fevered campaigns from members of the Institute of British Organ Builders, and has prompted the Government to step in to ensure the so-called kings of musical instruments are protected from the legislation, which comes into effect on July 1.

Ash-based organ builders FH Browne and Sons, whose 11 members of staff look after around 400 organs in Kent and surrounding counties, said they are in limbo until a decision is reached.

Managing director Roger Greensted said: “One pipe manufacturer in Leeds is only just ticking over when they are usually very busy, and staff feel it is because of these new directives.

“It hasn’t affected us that much at the moment, but we have already had one very large order delayed.”

The EU directives, Risk of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), categorically ban the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment from July 1, including lead – one of the main components of organ pipes.

The aim is to reduce the amount of toxic metal used in equipment such as mobile phones and computers from being dumped in landfill sites, but it would inadvertently prevent new electronically pumped pipe organs being made or existing models being repaired or moved.

A lead alloy is used in the pipes themselves, making them easy to manipulate to produce the right tones, and air is electronically pumped to them from the keys.

Mr Greensted added: “Organs are built to last for 100 years, and even then most are not disposed of completely, so the legislation as it stands is quite ridiculous.”

Speaking in Parliament last week, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said: “Our clear view is that pipe organs do not fall within the scope of the directive and that view is widely accepted in the European Commission.”

Canterbury Cathedral officials said they were reassured by the Government’s bid to put an end to “all this nonsense,” but that the legislation had already caused a great deal of concern.

Master of the choristers and organist Dr David Flood has been campaigning with the Cathedral Association and the Institute of British Organ Building to save the county’s pipes.

He said: “It is very worrying in that the new directive would prevent us from replacing any of our equipment.

“It would be OK to rebuild what we already have, but to replace the electrical components would be impossible, not just here but in any building.”
HERE[/url]
 
theres also been some stuff in the Irish papers about the EU banning chemicals used in the embalming process. this would lead to an end to open casket funerals.
 
How EU edict could kill off the Irish wake
By Tom Peterkin, Ireland Correspondent
(Filed: 10/04/2006)

The strange mixture of joy and grief that marks a traditional Irish funeral, with its week-long drink-fuelled wake, is under threat from a European directive.

The Irish custom that sees corpses kept in an open coffin so the deceased can be viewed during the wake has been endangered by an edict issued by Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner.

He wants chemicals used by embalmers to preserve the cadaver withdrawn under a new biocides directive.

Such a move would see the end of the age-old ritual of "laying out" the body while games are played and food and drink are consumed to the accompaniment of dancing and fiddle music.

Typically the body is bathed, dressed in a white garment and then laid on a bed or table. From that time on it is not to be left alone until the funeral, while relatives celebrate a life well lived.

Once it is laid out, the women start "keening" - a mournful lamentation sung by the women of the house.

A rosary would be placed in the hands of the deceased and each visitor would kneel next to the body for a brief prayer.

Wakes have been celebrated in Irish folklore for centuries. A notable example is Finnegans Wake - a comic song in which Finnegan wakes up in the middle of his own wake.

James Joyce took the title and inspiration from the song when he wrote his novel of the same name.

The Irish Association of Funeral Directors has written to politicians warning that the directive would change the way embalmers prepare bodies for viewing and burial.

The association said: "Viewing the deceased is part of Irish culture and it is recognised that such practice is an important part of bringing closure to bereavement, and ample evidence from psychologists exists to back this up."

The directive, which would come into effect in September, aims to withdraw embalming ingredients such as formaldehyde, which are capable of destroying living organisms.

Mr Dimas's directive has also been challenged by Brian Crowley, the Fianna Fail MEP for Ireland South. He said: "From my reading of the regulation the embalmers may argue a requirement of derogation on the grounds of protection of cultural heritage."

The funeral directors will hold a meeting this month with the Irish Department of Agriculture, which could apply for the ban to be delayed.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml ... wake10.xml
 
Two EU-laws that actually has become real laws:
1. Fishermen who weigh too much will lose their job if they do not diet.
2. Cows must have something soft to lay on in the barn.

Both these laws are in effect in Norway which isn't even a real member.
Concerning the second law mentioned, I think the rest of the EU is laughing at Norway for bothering to enforce it.
 
ramonmercado said:
How EU edict could kill off the Irish wake
By Tom Peterkin, Ireland Correspondent
(Filed: 10/04/2006)

The strange mixture of joy and grief that marks a traditional Irish funeral, with its week-long drink-fuelled wake, is under threat from a European directive.

The Irish custom that sees corpses kept in an open coffin so the deceased can be viewed during the wake has been endangered by an edict issued by Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner.

He wants chemicals used by embalmers to preserve the cadaver withdrawn under a new biocides directive.

Such a move would see the end of the age-old ritual of "laying out" the body while games are played and food and drink are consumed to the accompaniment of dancing and fiddle music.

Typically the body is bathed, dressed in a white garment and then laid on a bed or table. From that time on it is not to be left alone until the funeral, while relatives celebrate a life well lived.

Once it is laid out, the women start "keening" - a mournful lamentation sung by the women of the house.

A rosary would be placed in the hands of the deceased and each visitor would kneel next to the body for a brief prayer.

Wakes have been celebrated in Irish folklore for centuries. A notable example is Finnegans Wake - a comic song in which Finnegan wakes up in the middle of his own wake.

James Joyce took the title and inspiration from the song when he wrote his novel of the same name.

The Irish Association of Funeral Directors has written to politicians warning that the directive would change the way embalmers prepare bodies for viewing and burial.

The association said: "Viewing the deceased is part of Irish culture and it is recognised that such practice is an important part of bringing closure to bereavement, and ample evidence from psychologists exists to back this up."

The directive, which would come into effect in September, aims to withdraw embalming ingredients such as formaldehyde, which are capable of destroying living organisms.

Mr Dimas's directive has also been challenged by Brian Crowley, the Fianna Fail MEP for Ireland South. He said: "From my reading of the regulation the embalmers may argue a requirement of derogation on the grounds of protection of cultural heritage."

The funeral directors will hold a meeting this month with the Irish Department of Agriculture, which could apply for the ban to be delayed.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml ... wake10.xml

Usual Torygraph Euro-bashing I'm afraid.

The truth can be found on the Euromyths Website

The EU is not threatening the traditional Irish funeral. The EU directive on biocidal products, adopted in 1998, establishes a “positive” list of substances that do not have unacceptable effects on the environment, human or animal health. It is up to the industry to identify such substances.

As a result of this consultation with the industry, the Commission decided that substances used for embalming would be included on a priority list. They are to be evaluated by EU member states’ authorities by 2010. Whatever the outcome, embalming can in any case continue in Ireland as normal until then.

Also, Irish funeral directors can ask the authorities to apply for an exemption for embalming substances.
 
Usual Torygraph Euro-bashing I'm afraid.

The truth can be found on the Euromyths Website


The Irish tradition of Wakes did not die off but keening has. Here's an interesting BBC programme about the tradition.

Keeners were the women of rural Ireland who were traditionally paid to cry, wail and sing over the bodies of the dead at funerals and wakes.

Their role was to help channel the grief of the bereaved and they had an elevated, almost mythical status among their communities. The custom of keening had all but vanished by the 1950's as people began to view it as primitive, old-fashioned and uncivilised.

Now, broadcaster Marie-Louise Muir sets out to ask what's been lost with the passing of the keeners.

She travels to Inis Mor, a remote island off the west coast of Ireland, where one of Ireland's last professional keeners - Brigid Mullin - was recorded by the song collector and archivist Sidney Robertson Cowell in the 1950's. Brigid's crackling, eerie evocation of sorrow echoes down the years to capture a tradition in its dying days - a ghostly remnant of another world.

Dr Deirdre Ni Chonghaile is a native of Inis Mor and thinks modern funerals have taken on an almost Victorian dignity in a society that in general has become far less tolerant of extravagant displays of grief. Deirdre believes it was this very extravagance that helped lead to keening's demise. Its emphasis on the body and human mortality was in direct conflict with the notion of a Christian afterlife and the influential role of the keening women may even have been regarded as a threat to the patriarchy of the Church.

As the story of the keeners blends with the waves and winds of Ireland's west coast, Marie-Louise reflects on the passing of this once rich tradition.

Recordings:

Bridget Mullin with Sidney Robertson Cowell, keen performance and conversation.
Smithsonian Folkways, Ralph Rinzler Archives.

Neil O’Boyle, keen demonstration on fiddle.
Irish Traditional Music Archive, Dublin

Eithne Ni Uilleachan, ‘Grief’
from the album Bilingua (Gael Linn)

The Gloaming ‘The Pilgrim’s Song’
from the album ‘2’ (Real World)

Milk Carton Kids ‘Wish You Were Here’
(Anti/Epitaph)

Brian Eno ‘The Ship’
(Warp)

30 minutes

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0...tiJKyFociRDgkgBY3N8uTz0dIEbNeVImbx6gPxNYBmnH0
 
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