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The Balance of Competences Review – oddly imbalanced

Anna Sonny, 26 July 2013

The first four reports of the Balance of Competences Review, an audit designed to look at what the EU does and how it affects the UK, were published earlier this week. The review was launched by Foreign Secretary William Hague, in order to provide the British public, who are widely apathetic on most EU issues, with the facts on Europe before the promised in-out referendum.  It was also intended to find some compromise on an issue that divides the coalition not just between the Europhile Liberal Democrats and the traditionally more Eurosceptic Tories; the Tory party saw itself split along the fault line of EU membership.

Overall, the Balance of Competences is oddly imbalanced towards finding favour with the EU. The reports released cover the single market, taxation, animal health and welfare and food safety, health, development and foreign policy. While it did raise some concerns about the Working Time Directive, the report concluded that the current balance of competence between the EU and the UK is ‘broadly appropriate.’

This is a strange place to begin building on a campaign pledge to repatriate powers from the EU, as Prime Minister David Cameron promised to do back in 2010. It is true that it is difficult to really quantify the UK’s relationship with the EU, and the review was not supposed to reach a verdict on whether Britain should remain in the EU – but it is clear that any positive conclusions will surely be used as the basis for the case to remain in.

The report asks the question: ‘Is that trade-off, between cost and benefit, between economics and politics, of overall benefit to the UK? It is not possible to give a simple, unambiguous, and universally accepted response,’ before then going on to give the rather simple, unambiguous and unlikely to be universally accepted answer: ‘But most observers, and indeed most of the evidence received for this report, answer positively.’

By not examining the plethora of evidence that suggests otherwise, the report has missed the chance to answer some challenging questions on the EU, which would form a fair foundation for a real debate on Britain’s EU membership.

The next review, due this winter, will include reports on asylum and immigration, which is often a sticking point for the UK. It will be interesting to see whether the review quantifies the balance of competence on this issue as ‘broadly appropriate’ as well.

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