EU Referendum


EU regulation: a ban that failed


24/05/2013



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According to the Telegraph Media Group Ltd, the olive oil ban that was now isn't. It had, we are told, provoked "popular loathing", or "misunderstanding", from the people that were being protected for their own good.

"It was a measure intended to help consumers, to protect and inform them but it is clear that it cannot attract consumer support", said the hapless Commission spokesman in Brussels. As a consequence, the "proposition" was being withdrawn, to demonstrate that the Commission had been "very alive to the current debate in the press".

The reaction of Copa-Cogeca is interesting. This is the Brussels-based farming association, which is representing the olive oil producer interest. It says: "It is totally ludicrous that the commission just withdraws this measure due to political pressure - it has been discussed for over a year and passed through all the correct legal procedures".

The association argues that it was necessary to ban refillable bottles and the traditional aceiteras found on restaurant tables, complaining that, "It is totally unacceptable that the Commission has done a complete U-turn and has succumbed to political pressure like this".

This is from Pekka Pesonen, the general secretary, who goes on to add, "Perhaps it wasn't explained well enough". There, he has a point. The commission spokesman who originally set out the measure made a poor fist of explaining it, and there was no publicly-accessible background briefing that made a case for the ban.

That said, the media wasn't interested in explanations, scenting another Brussels "red-tape folly" to sink its teeth into. For the hacks to give the context and the background would have spoiled their story.

Nevertheless, it is no part of the media's job to explain our government's legislation when it fails to do so on its own account. We thus have here a small example of what happens when there is no democratic legitimacy behind a measure that was – certainly by Brussels standards – relatively sensible.

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