Europe, one of the key subjects of the presidential election. He may well be invited to your New Year’s tables. Is it all in Brussels? The True from False cell helps you disentangle the true from the false on a topic that quickly crystallizes the debates.
What if you are told that 60% of our laws come from the European Union?
Do not hesitate: it is wrong. Several studies show that it is actually much less. According to their estimates, 20 to 25% of French laws transpose or are inspired by European law. It also varies a lot depending on the business sector. For agriculture, for example – a favorite area of the European Union – Brussels imposes many rules. On the other hand, the impact of the EU is almost nil in the fields of education, housing, defense, or even the civil service.
You can also remind your interlocutor that he was surely taken by an affirmation that has been circulating for several years, shared in particular in the ranks of the extreme right, but based on a mistake. The origin of this “false figure” is attributed to Jacques Delors. At the end of the 1980s, he was president of the European Commission when he made a prediction claiming that in the year 2000 “80% of the legislation will be of Community origin”. It was not a matter of fact, but of an ultimately failed prognosis. Despite everything, this sentence continues to be repeated, wrongly.
What if you are told that Europe is getting involved in everything, down to the size of cucumbers?
That it was indeed true for a time, but it is no longer. In 1988, the European Commission had effectively set a regulation to regulate the size and shape of around forty fruits and vegetables. The “extra” quality cucumber thus had to meet a very specific requirement by being “practically straight” with a “maximum arch height of 10 millimeters” for a 10 cm long vegetable.
But in 2009, the Commission put an end to these standards. Realizing the absurdity, even the counterproductive nature of certain rules, she abolished these standards for 26 fruits and vegetables. So it has been over ten years since you can buy twisted cucumbers on the market again.