The Review of the Balance of Competences between the UK and the EU

The EU Select Committee of the United Kingdom House of Lords published a report on the 25 March 2015 on the results of the UK Government's Review of the Balance of Competences between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

At the time of the launch of the Review in 2012 the UK Government had said that the Review would be 'most extensive analysis of the impact of UK membership of the EU ever undertaken'.

The House of Lords report welcomed the Review as an ambitious piece of work, but criticised the Government for a failure to draw the 32 reports completed in the Review together in a final analysis; to promote the Review effectively; and for a lack of clarity on its true costs.

In an interview with The Observer on the 29 March 2015 the chairman of the EU Select Committee Lord Boswell said that none of the 32 chapters of the Review 'demonstrated that too much power resided in Brussels'.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: UK report: short shrift for sceptics [Final set of reports, December 2014] http://www.europeansources.info/record/uk-report-short-shrift-for-sceptics/

ESO: Background information: Review of the Balance of Competences http://www.europeansources.info/record/review-of-the-balance-of-competences/

UK: Parliament: House of Lords: Business: Committees: News, 29.03.15: Review of the Balance of Competences between the UK and EU http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/eu-select-committee-/news/balance-of-compentences-report-published/

EurActiv, 31.03.15: House of Lords report finds allegations of EU interference unfounded http://www.euractiv.com/sections/uk-europe/report-finds-allegations-of-eu-interference-unfounded-313386

The Observer, 29.03.15: Lords accuse Tories of ‘burying’ review that cleared EU of interference http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/28/lords-accuse-tories-burying-eu-powers-review

Blog: Open Europe, 11.06.15: The truth about the government’s EU audit http://openeurope.org.uk/blog/the-truth-about-the-governments-eu-audit/

United Kingdom: House of Lords: Select Committee on the European Union: The Review of the Balance of Competences between the UK and the EU - Government Response, July 2015 http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-committees/eu-select/BoC/GovernmentResponseBoC.pdf

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