A bit off topic, but I was thinking recently if EU ever deregulates anything? Do they only add new laws and paragraphs? Are they rewarded in LoC? What are examples of laws they removed or deregulated?
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32...
A summary is here: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/cellar/c56fbf1c-97bd-...
It abrogated the various national laws concerning product quantities, ie. in France you could sell shampoo in 250ml or 500ml bottles, but not 295ml. Or you could sell mushrooms in 250g and 500g boxes, but not 230g or 490g.
This is now allowed, which made this in effect a deregulation enabling shrinkflation.
Perhaps I'm missing something.
I never need to think about import/export restrictions, immigration law, visas, exchange rates, phone contracts or medical insurance contracts.
It certainly deregulated my life. I feel less regulated on what I can do. It removed barriers. And that's really the only thing that matters.
I think it is extremely hard to argue that this was a case of the EU deregulating anything. What happened was the EU started to regulate more, which invalidated the regulations of states.
The EU is specifically the mechanism by which the countries streamline their legislative differences.
For me, I found the way EU handles food safety as opposed to the US to be a great summary of their philosophies: in EU a food needs to be proven to be safe to be allowed, while in the US the food needs to be proved unsafe to be banned.
See e.g. how Germany handles milk compared to the US.
Eg in Germany minced pork has to be safe to eat raw, because that's what Germans do. Not because they are necessarily any stricter in general.
In the US eggs have to refrigerated. In Germany they are typically sold at room temperature. (I'm not sure whether refrigeration of eggs would be legal for shops in Germany?)
Especially when to comes to the dichotomy of proven safe vs. not proven unsafe.
On the other hand, EU allows cheese made from raw milk while most of the US states disallow it.
On both issues and as a cheese lover I'm glad to live on the right side of the Atlantic.
My comment also includes many additives, pesticides and other lots of food-related components which are allowed in the US but not in the EU.
Alas, the EU isn't special in this regard.
Deregulation isn't really popular these days. But it has happened from time to time here and there.
Any other market and any developed country will have us beat.
Though you seldom get deregulation by just deleting laws. Most of the time deregulation means replacing one regulation with a different set (that is hopefully simpler, but not always).
Eh, I disagree, in general. I see little benefit.
EU economies have benefited greatly from the removal of barriers between countries. The EU officials didn't see that as a sign that the strength of the EU lies in their members freedom, but as a sign that now every single issue should be regulated by EU officials.
That is why you have laughable things like the recent AI regulations. An entire continent with barely a single AI company wants to tell the rest of the world what to do. The cause is pretty clearly in the delusional minds of EU officials who genuinely believe that their regulation are worth more than the paper they are written on.
It tells "the rest of the world" what to do when they operate in the EU.
Which is exactly what governments are made for. AI companies do whatever they like outside the EU, and it's not the EU's concern.
They don't want to create laws which only effect how AI companies handle operating in the EU, they see European contribution to AI as offering a legal framework of how it should be operated and legislated worldwide.
Also, if you say something that sounds like "free speech" their heads explode. It's quite spectacular to watch.