How some EU laws can be controlled

Dear Sir,

A number of your readers seem to be ignoring or are ignorant of the principle of subsidiarity that is enshrined in the EU treaties.

Simply, this means that no area of legislation will be subject to eu laws unless the governments of the countries that compile it want it to and there is agreement that legislation in this area is beneficial at the eu level.

Thus, there is a double hurdle to be crossed for an area of legislation to be included in eu law and the default position is for it to be retained by the nation state.

This is how we have retained border controls and some social legislation and opted out of these eu laws.

This is an important principle though of course it depends on the government at the time of the legislation being introduced seeking to opt out of it.

If the citizens of a country could also by petition suggest that an area of legislation be subject to subsidiarity, this would increase the accountability of the eu to its citizens.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Peter Hirst

Middlewich