johaneriksson.se

The EU Observer reports that Finland will make another effort to get a new EU directive on working hours pushed through. The British, and most of the newer member states, thinks that the EU should have nothing to do with this, and that grown up people are quite capable of deciding for themselves how much they want to work. Meanwhile France claims that this directive (which is supposed to prevent people from working more than 48 hours a week) is critical to the health of all Europeans. It strikes me as more likely that they’re trying to protect their industry while ensuring that their more lazy 35 hrs/week workers can stick with their current pace.

The Finns have found that it is hard to get the two fractions to compromise on this one. No wonder. A compromise between these two positions is not particularly desireable. The EU should stay out of issues like these, where the European interest is utterly vague. All European legislation would achieve is to reduce competition in Europe, and that is a bad thing. Not to speak of the nannystate style law — a style that we already have more than enough of. We can happily do without any additional ones being brought from Paris via Brussels.