Recent press coverage on “EU’s high heel ban for salon staff” and “Barmy EU to ban stylist’s ring & heels” are misleading and reports of a new health and safety directive are untrue.

What lies behind the “hair-raising” headlines is an own initiative by salon owners and hairdressers to help better protect the health and safety of all those working in the industry in the EU.

The draft agreement negotiated by Coiffure EU and UNI Europa builds upon existing national best practices and existing regulations in member states. Such as the current HSE guidelines (pdf) on the provision of gloves. It will mean little change for those hairdressers – salon owners and workers – who already follow the law and health and safety guidance.

Scientific evidence shows hairdressers are exposed to a high risk of occupational disease, such as muscular-skeletal disorders and skin diseases in particular. Failure to adequately …

Contrary to Paul Naish’s article in the Mail on 31 March, there is nothing in EU law that prevents the UK from checking the language skills of doctors and nurses from elsewhere in the EU. There is no “new Brussels Directive against language checks”. Instead, proposed revisions to EU rules will make even clearer that all EU-qualified health professionals can be subject to checks before they take up a post. Far from EU law “taking precedence” over the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans to reinforce such checks, the European Commission has welcomed those plans.

Mark English, Head of Media
European Commission Representation in the UK

This letter was published, slightly edited, in the Daily Mail on 5 April (p.83). The newspaper did not contact the European Commission before publication. Commissioner Michel Barnier had already exploded this Euromyth in January.

Letter published in the Sunday Times - slightly edited by the newspaper – on 18 March 2012
 
Dear Sir
Bojan Pancevski’s report “I can’t fly Ryanair – the EU’s paying” (11 March) is simply incorrect. The European Commission does not ban officials from using budget carriers. On the contrary, low-cost airlines are explicitly highlighted as an option in travel guidance for staff. They have to book Ryanair flights themselves because Ryanair – unlike some other low-cost airlines – does not allow travel agents to book tickets through industry booking systems. Also contrary to the report, EU officials are in most circumstances required to fly in economy class. In 2011, more than 80% of flights were in economy.

Antony Gravili
Spokesman for Administration, European Commission

Response posted on The Daily Express website on 15th March 2012

Some big truths about the EU – A few figures – not from the EC but the UK government

The UK economy benefits from the single market alone to the tune of between £30 bn and £90 bn annually or between £1 100 and £3 300 per household (27m households in UK) per annum, according to the UK government – thus in 2011 outweighing the UK’s net contribution to the EU budget by a rough multiple of between 5 and 15. http://bit.ly/Awkn5I

Exports to other EU countries account for 51 per cent of the UK’s exports of goods and services, worth £200 billion.

The UK exports nearly twice as much to Belgium (£13 billion in 2011) nearly three times as much to the Netherlands (£19 billion) and four times as much to Germany (£27.5 billion) as to China (£7 billion). Key to …

It is not true that the EU does nothing for crime victims (8 March). Victim protection is a key strand of the EU’s £500m anti-crime programme. Another programme supports domestic violence victims.

The EU funds NGOs like Victim Support UK. EU help to get ex-offenders into jobs means less crime. EU police cooperation catches criminals – like the 7/7 terrorist arrested in Italy.

The European Commission has tabled EU-wide rules to get victims proper support and the right to take part in trials. British victims want that. Take campaigner Maggie Hughes from Surrey. Her son Robbie was brutally attacked on holiday and she is backing the proposal.

Jonathan Scheele
Head of the European Commission Representation in the UK

Sir,

The article by Ian Birrell on EU aid (8 March) does not paint a fair picture.

Many of the accusations are from a year-old Open Europe report which the European Commission has comprehensively refuted (see http://bit.ly/AEAQww)

It is not the case that 85p in every £1 spent goes to “middle income countries”. 64% of EU development funds  – which total around £21.5 billion annually – go to countries classified by the UN as least developed. This is set to increase.

But almost half of the 1.6 billion people living in absolute poverty live in countries – like India – classified as “middle income” Aid there still saves lives, often children’s. The Commission has proposed that from 2014 help for India be more targeted on partnerships in areas like fighting disease and hopes that Member States will support this.

Administration costs average 5.4% which compares favourably with national aid.

27 countries acting together …

“Europe” is not considering extending the Solvency II rules for the insurance industry to pension funds in a way that would force the closure of final salary pension schemes.

Articles (14 Feb) in the Daily Express, the Daily Telegraph and the Independent paint an incomplete and sometimes misleading picture

There is a current review of the rules applying to pension funds. But the Commission will not put forward proposals for some months yet.

Those proposals will definitely not “cut and paste” Solvency II provisions into pension rules. They will be based on detailed impact assessments and will be designed to make pensions safer – so that people do not contribute for many years and then lose out – without undermining the supply of occupational pension provision.

Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier has made a comprehensive public statement (10 Feb) on these issues, regrettably not referred to in any of the articles. It is …

Comment posted in response to City attacks ‘flawed’ EC analysis of transaction tax merits (Daily Telegraph website, 13 Feb 2012)
There is no contradiction – as alleged by today’s letter from financial sector representatives – between the European Commission’s general position on the benefits of derivatives and Commissioner Semeta’s arguments supporting the financial transaction tax (FTT) in the Telegraph on Friday.

In using the term “socially useless” activity, Commissioner Semeta was not referring to derivatives in general and there is nothing in his article that could justify that reading.

Rather, he was alluding to certain types of activity, such as some automated High Frequency Trading, that redistribute rents instead of creating value. This type of activity offers no positive contribution to the rest of the economy and arguably played a part in bringing about the financial crisis.

Lord Turner, of course, famously made a similar point.

With regard to the figure of 90% decrease in trading of …

Letter sent to the Editor of The Daily Express on 18th January 2012

The idea that giving teachers pencil cases and brochures, at their own request, is  “brainwashing” by the EU (Express, 18 January) is nonsense. The notion that a video published on our website for two years is part of some secret conspiracy is absurd. Sadly, there is a great deal of misinformation about the EU in the UK, though we tend to avoid hyperbolic terms like “brainwashing”. But it does not come from the European Commission. Our Euromyths website, where the Express features frequently, provides hundreds of examples.

Mark English
Head of Media, European Commission Representation in the UK

Letter sent to the Editor of The Daily Express on 5th January, 2012

Your front page claim that the EU will “hammer Britain with a crippling new tax” (5 Jan) is fantasy. First, as your own article says on page four, the UK has a veto on the proposed financial transaction tax. Second, far from “destroying jobs”, the proposal aims to save jobs by helping prevent crises caused by reckless speculation. The aim is for banks across the EU to contribute fairly to the trillions of pounds and euros it has cost taxpayers to rescue them. Proceeds in the UK would go to national coffers and to reduce the UK’s EU budget contribution. Finally, all EU leaders have repeatedly made clear that they want a responsible City of London to thrive, as thanks to the EU single market it provides vital financial services right across the EU and contributes to jobs …