European Commission’s deregulation drive threatens EU nature laws

Deregulation is often packaged as a fight against red tape or a drive to improve efficiency by removing so-called ‘burdens’ on business or ‘barriers’ to trade. But such ‘burdens’ are the social and environmental standards that protect us all and the world we live in.

With human activity responsible for both dangerous levels of damage to natural habitats in Europe and the onset of the biggest mass extinction event in over 65 million years, we should be asking what more we can do to protect Europe’s most vulnerable plants and species, not assessing rules that are there to protect the environment against a set of outdated jobs and growth objectives.

Unfortunately, the European Commission currently seems to be intent on the latter.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Better Regulation Agenda: Enhancing transparency and scrutiny for better EU law-making http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-better-regulation-agenda-enhancing-transparency-and-scrutiny-for-better-eu-law-making/

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