de Spiegel
PERFECTING A SYSTEM OF TOTAL CONTROL
How Brussels Regulates our Daily Lives
By Hans-Jürgen Schlamp and Markus Verbeet in Brussels
The European Commission in Brussels wants to protect European citizens even more effectively against danger and
disease. Soon there will be a well-intended -- but mostly completely unnecessary -- regulation for every aspect of
life.
Recently, the German specialty
"Apfelwein" nearly lost the right
to be called apple wine because it
isn't made with grapes.
One-year-old Diego didn't have a chance. Try as he would, he simply couldn't get the old "Made in China" lighter or
the new "child-safe" version from France to light. Older children like Tessa, who is almost five, managed to coax a
flame from the Chinese model after only three minutes. It didn't take her much longer to light the French version.
From a bureaucratic standpoint, the pre-pubescent subjects' efforts to play with fire -- all in the name of scientific
research, of course -- were a complete success. Under a European Union regulation that goes by the code K (2007)
1567, as of March 11, 2008 only "child-safe" disposable lighters will be approved for sale in the EU. But first the
lighters' "child safety" must be demonstrated in a test laboratory. Under the regulation, a lighter is deemed
acceptable (that is, child-safe), if no more than 15 of 100 kids aged less than 51 months manage to light it.
It seems only a matter of time before Brussels' compulsion to control everything is subjected to a nonsense standard,
which would recognize anything that causes 25 of 100 adult EU citizens to shake their heads in disbelief for a period
of at least 30 seconds as general lunacy.
In all seriousness, the EU's inspectors are keeping themselves busy coming up with more and more regulations to govern
even the most hidden corners of human existence, and that will cover the length and breadth of the EU -- from Inari in
northern Finland to Limassol on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
The
"expanded apparatus of the Brussels EU Commission" contributes to the fact
"that there is now a layer of
overregulation that exceeds the reasonable scope of the law," says Papier, the chief justice of Germany's highest
court. For this reason, says Papier, the legal system runs the risk
"of suffocating the individual responsibility and
self-determination it is in fact intended to guarantee."
Torsten Stein, a European legal expert at Saarland University, warns that one day EU citizens will become aware
"that, long after the end of absolute rulers, a new authority has established itself that once again claims the
authority to decide what is good and what is bad for subjects."
Full Spiegel article..
HERE