10 times Eurosceptics lied about the EU
Pants on fire are impossible due to EU regulations.
So there’s a lot of bad information out there. Here at Brussels Brief we want to help fix the problems we see in the EU, and there are plenty to work on. But that also means we can’t keep buying falsehoods, lies and nonsense. Here’s a list of our top 10 lies we want people to remember is utter nonsense and usually a distraction thrown out by Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen and Co. so you won’t notice they’ve been paid by EU taxpayers for the last 20 years.
1. The EU banned Condoms.
Yes this is a good one. According to the eurosceptic media the EU and its army of bureaucrats wanted to get involved in peoples personal lives. Never mind the fact that no government would want to do this, it was all-too-easy to paint a picture of regulation horny Eurocrats wanting to dictate how and when to have sex. Of course the lie lived on for a long while. What is true is that a law specified safety standards for condoms to be bought and sold all over the EU making sure nobody would suddenly be buying a bad product making a first date into a whole other business.
2. The EU wants to regulate bananas.
(ups, farmers wanted that): When “Brussels” isn’t busy dictating how you have sex it must use its time on other rather important business. What could be more necessary than regulating bananas? Again, no regulation crazed person in Brussels had a desire to enforce banana decrees. The Farming lobby wanted to implement a common standard for different types of bananas. Curved bananas were not banned. Instead, a law specified different classifications to ease buying and selling of bananas instead of the myriad of different regulations that existed in member countries. In fact this did not hurt the banana farmer, but was implemented because it helped farmers sell their product.
3. Cucumbers.
But if the Eurocrats didn’t regulate bananas they surely banned curved cucumbers. Once again this was done on behest of farmers. Actually it was a Danish law that had existed since 1926 specifying how cucumbers should look. This made it easier to stack, pack and sell cucumbers making farmers and traders happy(ier). When Danish minister Bertel Haarder introduced the law at EU level other countries were quick to see its value and it became an official EU law in 1989. However, the new cucumber law ironically became a ferocious rally cry for anti-EU parties in the 1992 Danish referendum for the Maastricht Treaty. Nobody seemed to remember that the EU had only just adopted a Danish law.
4. Nobody elected Jean-Claude Juncker.
The European Parliament elects the President of the European Commission based on the result of the European Parliament Elections. Jean-Claude Juncker was elected as the candidate by the EPP, the conservative group, and when they got the most seats in the 2014 elections they wanted Juncker to become Commission president. In practice, this is similar to many countries were the leader of the majority party become prime minister. However, few Europeans had ever heard of Juncker and therefore didn’t feel that he was their candidate. We recommend you take a look at who the European parties choose as their candidate for the next election in 2019.
5. No wine unless it’s in EU glasses.
To say the least, Brussels Brief is not a fan of non-factual outlets (we’re talking newspapers not gossip magazines, of course). Sometimes even the best, such as the Financial Times gets it wrong, really wrong. A story about the EU baninng wine served in non approved-government and stamped glasses of 125ml or 175 ml glasses was clearly the result of a reporter having a few too many drinks. Maybe personal experiences at the local pub led to this ludicrous story?
6. The EU wastes my money.
First of all, the EU’s budget is around 1% of the total European GDP. Compared to the 56% spend in France or 41% in Poland, how could you not argue this is a small amount? But is the money spent on? 6% are administrative costs for public officials in the Commission, the European Parliament and others. A large part of that,is used for translation so that citizens can receive any document they want in their own language or so that MEPs can have translations. 94% of the money is spent in member states. So it is in any country when public money is spent. See more here.
7. The EU is a massive bureaucracy!
Well massive is a relative term, non? The Commission employs some 30.000 people. A lot, but in fact most large cities employ more people. The reason: most EU policies are implemented by national governments. Plus there’s no EU army, police, hospitals or schools that employ armies of loyal Eurocrats.
8. EU bans cake-eating competitions.
Every morning thousands of overpaid, selfloving eilitist bureaucrats wake up in Brussels and try to think of new ways to strangle the fun out of life. At least that seems to be what the writers at The Times in the UK must have thought when they came up with a history about the EU (those pesky bureaucrats) trying to ban eating cakes served in eating competitions. In any case the idea wasn’t even half baked: you can still go to an eating contest and enjoy the spoils of victory.
9. Yogurt to be renamed fermented milk pudding.
As you’ve probably noticed there’s only fermented milk pudding on supermarket shelves these days. A quick shopping trip should be enough to dispel that lie. At Brussels Brief we have a particular liking for Greek fermented milk pudding. Yum yum
10. Brussels Brief is fake news / a neo-liberal bastion of antifas.
Okay this is more convenient conjecture than an actual accusation from Eurosceptics but you could envisage such a claim being made by our trolls. So if you really want to annoy a Eurosceptic, SIGN UP to Brussels Brief for weekly mythbusting on the EU and the latest in giftastic infotainment.
