Impact of the EU on Daily Life in the UK

Impact of the EU on Daily Life in the UK

Impact of the EU on Daily Life in the UK

Introduction

The EU now has powerful influence on our everyday lives. But as a result of the way EU legislation operates, it is often not clear to either voters or even journalists when a particular decision or policy originates in the EU. Domestic legislation often is actually a “shell” for the purpose of implementing European law. Leonard is indeed right to argue that “Europe's power is easy to miss”. And often, even if EU legislation has not wholly determined a particular decision, EU law has had important influence on policy-makers and officials. As a result, by far the most common question asked by journalists the Lisbon Treaty is: “but how will this affect our daily lives?” Too many journalists passively accept the Government's spin that the EU is a distant foreign policy question which normal people don't care about. As food for thought, this paper reviews a selection of the everyday effects of EU law. It is by no means an exhaustive list. We do not seek to pass judgement on the measures in question, but simply to demonstrate the true scale of the influence the EU exerts over people's daily lives.

Household:

Home Information Packs (HIPs). The Government introduced Home Information Packs in 2006 in order to implement the EU's Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2002/91/EC ), which requires all homes to have an energy performance certificate. The cost of these to UK households will be around £337 million a year. By 2020, EPCs will have cost the UK £4.7 billion. 2 Fortnightly bin collections. The EU's Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC ) obliges the UK to reduce the amount of landfill waste by 25% from 1995 levels by 2010, a 50% reduction by 2013 and a 65% reduction by 2020. The Directive was implemented by the Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations, which came into force on 15 June 2002.

Failure to meet the regulations will result in fines estimated by DEFRA at more than £200 million if targets are not met by 2013. 4 In order to meet the regulations, and avoid EU fines, around 40% of local authorities in England have adopted an 'alternate weekly collection' system whereby waste is collected one week and recyclables the next. 5 Higher household electricity bills, more ...