Just Do Nothing, EU Officials Told (But Be Sure To Fill In The Form To Say You've Done It)

Just do nothing, EU officials told (but be sure to fill in form to say you've done it)

"If in doubt, do nothing" might seem like common sense to most people, but in Brussels it has just become official policy. But even doing nothing will entail some paperwork.

Conscious of its reputation for unnecessary meddling, the European Commission has issued staff with guidelines advising them that the status quo could be the best option.

Under a heading "To regulate or not to regulate, that is the question", commission bureaucrats are told that when they are confronted with a problem, they should resist any immediate instinct to conjure up yet another EU directive.

"The option of no EU action should always be considered," say the instructions. "Tackling the identified problem doesn't mean that you need automatically choose a regulatory option such as a directive or a regulation. Consider the full range of alternative actions available to the commission. Is self-regulation a feasible option?"

However, nothing is as easy as it seems and officials have been told they must fill out forms which state that they have taken no action. The document, entitled Impact Assessment Guidelines, has been published after the rejection of the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands.

The votes have set off a wave of soul-searching in Brussels, with commissioners and Euro-MPs asking why the public has become so hostile towards EU institutions. One reason behind it is believed to be the reputation of Brussels for generating red tape.

"Given the amount of existing legislation," the guidelines say - referring to the 80,000 pages of EU law in existence - "a 'doing less' option could also be considered. If existing measures in a certain area do not produce the expected effects, creating a new instrument is not necessarily the best remedy."

By its own admission, this is the first time the commission has set out a procedure for doing nothing. The guidelines also chime with the red tape-cutting objectives of the commission president Jose Barroso, and industry commissioner Gunter Verhuegen, who has talked of a need to show more "self-restraint".

Conservatives in the European Parliament suspect, that like the very stuff it is designed to tackle, the new do-nothing edict will end up as yet another piece of superfluous paperwork.

"It would be nice if this were true but we will believe it when we see it," said Philip Bushill-Matthews Euro-MP, Conservative spokesman for employment and social affairs.

To underline his point, Mr Bushill-Matthews said that he is fighting an EU Bill which could end in a ban on bare chests on building sites. Known in Brussels as the ''sunlight directive'', the proposed law seeks to protect workers from harmful ultra-violet radiation.

"The legislation might be a good idea in theory but it has gone totally out of control in practice," said Mr Bushill-Matthews.

officials have been told they must fill out forms which state that they have taken no action.

Must be in the genes!

"For whereas there is but one way to do nothing and divers ways to do something, whereof, to a surety, only one is the right way, it followeth that he who from indecision standeth still hath not so many chances of going astray as he who pusheth forwards"
Sir Thomas Brewbold per Ambrose Bierce
But now, due to the progress of time, there are divers ways to do nothing as well - with and without paperwork. Maybe the officials (both from the EU and from outside of it) should instead go for "parrot training": few times a day, in a chorus, the whole department should shout with great vehemence "none of my business!!!" several times.

To underline his point, Mr Bushill-Matthews said that he is fighting an EU Bill which could end in a ban on bare chests on building sites.

Any female construction workers in Europe? Hmmmmm... How dare they restrict individual liberty in this way...

5 posted on 07/02/2005 8:05:51 PM PDT by solitas (So what if I support an OS that has fewer flaws than yours? 'Mystic' dual 500 G4's, OSX.4.1)

"The document, entitled Impact Assessment Guidelines..."

Hmmm, directive guidelines governing guideline directives over direct line guides guiding line directions.

Just make sure that you fill out the proper paperwork indicating that no action was taken.

Oh, in triplicate, please, and in the 7 languages required by the Impact Assessment Guidelines. Sheesh!

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