- Most areas of domestic policy are now under the control of the EU. Its legislation takes two main forms: Directives and Regulations. Directives must be transposed into UK Acts of Parliament. The UK Parliament has no choice in the matter, even if, in some instances, it may tinker with the details. And Regulations automatically become law, even without our Parliament debating them.
- The amount of law coming from the EU varies from year to year. In 2006, the German Parliament, under former President Roman Hertzog, carried out a study that put the proportion of new laws originating from the EU at 84%. Gordon Brown, in a speech to the Confederation of British Industry in 2005 while he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, admitted that "European regulations - of course - account for 50% of significant new rules for business".
- In the European Parliament, EU Commissioner Viviane Reding admitted that "70% of British laws are made in the EU". So a reasonable estimate is that, in any given year, the proportion of our law that comes from the EU is
somewhere between 50% and 80%.
- The rate of legislation passing through the European Parliament has somewhat slowed down over the last eighteen months, and it is believed that a large amount of legislation is being deliberately held back by the Commission until the British Referendum is over. If we vote to remain in the EU, the legislative floodgates will once again open.
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