Political cynicism rears its ugly head in chemical deal

POLITICAL cynicism is on display in the EU this week in a number of forms. The most common kind is in the relationship between the EU and its member states.

One such cynical event was the meeting between the leaders of France, Germany and Britain over the weekend. They were trying to patch up their relationships after falling out over the US attack on Iraq.

Europe needs to agree basic foreign policy but the meeting of the big three did not produce this. Instead they issued a statement on the need for what they call a workable chemicals' policy.

Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein described the document as a disgrace and said it could have been written by the chemicals' industry.

The commission has produced a report on a new chemicals' policy for the EU after weeks of consultation with the industry, consumers and other interested parties. The industry says it will mean more rules, regulations and bureaucracy and so will send the jobs and money to other less controlled parts of the globe.

Mr Bolkestein claims it will mean less red tape as it will replace the numerous national regulations with a common EU set. Whatever the truth, everyone knows there is war over chemicals' regulations. Britain has already nailed its colours to the mast saying the Commission plans are out of line. They believe the battle will be long and dirty and estimate it will continue for at least two years bringing it into their presidency in 2005.

As a cynical exercise in appeasement, France and Germany were quite happy to issue a statement supporting Britain's stance on chemicals.

A second display of political cynicism was visible at the Competition Council in Brussels on Monday attended by enterprise ministers. They were recently reformed as part of the plan to energise Europe's enterprise culture and create wealth and jobs.

Before them was a report showing not only have they failed to implement laws to which they agreed and which were designed to kick start Europe's economy, but their record implementing the rules has got worse.

Rather than address this they talked instead about subjecting new EU laws to impact assessments to ensure they are investment and business friendly.

But having failed to agree on any of the concrete proposals before them, the ministers seemed to be grasping at straws. Had, as one official suggested, their discussions been subjected to an impact assessment, the result would have been zero.