Gordon Brown Promises To Roll Back European Over-Regulation

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

08 February 2005

Speaking at a seminar in London last week ahead of his meeting with fellow G7 finance ministers, UK Chancellor Gordon Brown announced that he plans to push for the rolling back of restrictive EU legislation in order to improve the UK's international competitiveness.

Mr Brown revealed that as part of his mission to create economic stability and attract international businesses to locate and invest in the United Kingdom, he would be looking to speed up planning laws, encourage pay flexibility, and open up the competition regime.

"In the Budget, I will set out proposals not just about the burden of regulations but about the volume and flow of regulations," he told delegates from the business community attending the meeting, continuing:

"My position is that, in this new global economy, government must do all - principally through stability, education and infrastructure - that it is necessary to do but no more - and we will continue to remove barriers that are not justified. So it is in the national interest that we continue to resist inflexible regulation from the European Union."

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