SORs and the EU

Background briefing. Dr Slysz's letter is important: the EU origin of many contentious UK laws is ignored or covered up by the Government and even the 'euro-sceptic' press. However, the British Government still has a range of options in how to implement EU legislation, one of which is to risk the wrath of the Commission by ignoring it altogether. (Think of France's illegal, but perfectly effective, ban on British beef, and the 'Stability Pact'.) What tends to happen is that the Government uses EU initiatives to impose laws in Britain which go far beyond what EU law, strictly, requires. On the other hand, if member states go back to the Council of Ministers with the message that the implementation of the gender-equality law is politically impossible, then the EU will back down.


Dr Slysz, an historian, stood for the London Assembly for the UK Independence party; see his article on the EU published in Christian Order, here.

Letter to the Catholic Herald, December 1st, from Dr Gregory Slysz, in part: (The Government withdrew its Gay Rights ammendment to the Provision of Goods and Services Bill (2005)): 'However, after intense lobbying of the Government by gay rights groups and, crucially, after a stern warning by the European Union Commission that the Bill, as it stood, would be in breach of the EU's gender legislation, the Government was obliged to amend the Bill accordingly. As such, any hesitation by Ruth Kelly ... was mere posturing...
Maybe this development will finally convince those Catholics, lay and cleric alike, who hitherto have been unaware of the dangers of EU secularism, that the EU's "values" on so many key issues are incompatible with Christian teaching.
Yours faithfully, Gregory Slysz.'