Even deregulation is of course some kind of regulation, but what comes to my mind is:

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32...

A summary is here: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/cellar/c56fbf1c-97bd-...

It abrogated the various national laws concerning product quantities, ie. in France you could sell shampoo in 250ml or 500ml bottles, but not 295ml. Or you could sell mushrooms in 250g and 500g boxes, but not 230g or 490g.

This is now allowed, which made this in effect a deregulation enabling shrinkflation.

Yes, I can roam freely in all the Union's states, use the same currency in most of them, use my cellphone with no roaming costs, have access to health care if needed... that's the result of imposing less regulation, not more.

All of these are cases where EU was removing state regulations in favor of their own regulations. I don't think this falls under deregulation at all, it's just centralization.

It effectively removed a great number of pages of laws/regulations/contracts that need to be applied to my life.

I never need to think about import/export restrictions, immigration law, visas, exchange rates, phone contracts or medical insurance contracts.

It certainly deregulated my life. I feel less regulated on what I can do. It removed barriers. And that's really the only thing that matters.

But this is a case of countries removing legislation from you.

I think it is extremely hard to argue that this was a case of the EU deregulating anything. What happened was the EU started to regulate more, which invalidated the regulations of states.

No, it's a case of the countries which are in the EU all making their legislation equivalent because they all agreed to let the EU be the place where they figure out how to do that.

The EU is specifically the mechanism by which the countries streamline their legislative differences.

Sure, but what does that have to do with anything?

I mean... technically that is a new regulation. Some Polish providers already didn't have roaming fees in EU before that.

If you make a law that cancels a previous one, it's still a new law, but if you want to measure "regulation", it is less?

Yes, I don't see how the EU mandating free roaming is a case of deregulation?

Perhaps I'm missing something.

Consider that for the small convenience of using the same currency and health service of other countries those very fee times that you travel, your country has given up sovereignty. It seems like the capricious desires of cheap-flight digital nomads have been traded for something as fundamental as sovereignty.

That depends on what you mean by deregulate. There's a lot of simplification through the single market and free movement of labor.

I think it's no surprise that it might appear like that.

For me, I found the way EU handles food safety as opposed to the US to be a great summary of their philosophies: in EU a food needs to be proven to be safe to be allowed, while in the US the food needs to be proved unsafe to be banned.

You're probably thinking to the hormone beef issue where EU has stricter standards than the USA.

On the other hand, EU allows cheese made from raw milk while most of the US states disallow it.

On both issues and as a cheese lover I'm glad to live on the right side of the Atlantic.

I believe that's because Europeans showed that it's possible to have safe cheese made from raw milk (since it's quite ingrained into several cultures).

My comment also includes many additives, pesticides and other lots of food-related components which are allowed in the US but not in the EU.

But EU states have more lax food safety laws than the US?

See e.g. how Germany handles milk compared to the US.

They have different standards for some things.

Eg in Germany minced pork has to be safe to eat raw, because that's what Germans do. Not because they are necessarily any stricter in general.

In the US eggs have to refrigerated. In Germany they are typically sold at room temperature. (I'm not sure whether refrigeration of eggs would be legal for shops in Germany?)

Sure, but I fail to see how this means that in general EU laws on foods are much stricter.

Especially when to comes to the dichotomy of proven safe vs. not proven unsafe.

Yes, I was mostly agreeing with your stance on that. I just wanted to add some extra details.

The eggs can be kept that way because they aren’t washed like they are in the USA and that process removes a valuable layer that keeps eggs shelf stable for quite a while; in the USA it washed away and to keep the eggs fresh they’re refrigerated instead. I have no idea which way is best.

Yes, that was my point: they have different standards, but it's in general hard to say which one is 'stricter' or 'better', if that applies at all.

In Germany, the irradiation of almost all foods (except dry spices) is banned. There's no good reason for this, just pseudoscientific paranoia. Irradiation is a great way to safely sterilize food.

> A bit off topic, but I was thinking recently if EU ever deregulates anything?

Alas, the EU isn't special in this regard.

Deregulation isn't really popular these days. But it has happened from time to time here and there.

I don't know who first said it.. but something something "they call them lawMAKERS, what do you expect them to do, remove laws? OF course they'll just make new laws"

Is deregulation desirable?

In general, yes.

Though you seldom get deregulation by just deleting laws. Most of the time deregulation means replacing one regulation with a different set (that is hopefully simpler, but not always).

> In general, yes.

Eh, I disagree, in general. I see little benefit.

Just FYI, Greta Thunberg is considered persona non grata now.

By whom? She is still one of the world's foremost figures in the fight against climate change, but also in other activist fights (like the fight against apartheid in Israel).

Here in Germany she is considered an antisemite now. All the Green party allies have publicly distanced themselves from her.

She always seems more of a drama activist than a real activist but she has every right to be that. If her drama gets more young people involved in environmental issues it’s win-win. I bear her no ill will, but I don’t seek out news about her. So she’s certainly not considered with a blanket status of “person non grata”

Deregulation is great when the law is unfounded or unfair. There is much to little “revisiting” of laws to see if they actually did what they said they did. Otherwise said regulation is useless and just costing society wasted energy and time. I think we need more government agencies studying such things to create a feedback loop so that if it’s failing it gets removed.

They self identify as a "regulatory superpower", the EU officials see their primary strength not in the economic and social strengths of their member states, but in the gigantic bureaucracy that they have created.

EU economies have benefited greatly from the removal of barriers between countries. The EU officials didn't see that as a sign that the strength of the EU lies in their members freedom, but as a sign that now every single issue should be regulated by EU officials.

That is why you have laughable things like the recent AI regulations. An entire continent with barely a single AI company wants to tell the rest of the world what to do. The cause is pretty clearly in the delusional minds of EU officials who genuinely believe that their regulation are worth more than the paper they are written on.

> An entire continent with barely a single AI company wants to tell the rest of the world what to do.

It tells "the rest of the world" what to do when they operate in the EU.

Which is exactly what governments are made for. AI companies do whatever they like outside the EU, and it's not the EU's concern.

That is not the ambition of the EU. Their ambition is it to create a framework how AI is handled globally. That is what they mean by "regulatory superpower".

They don't want to create laws which only effect how AI companies handle operating in the EU, they see European contribution to AI as offering a legal framework of how it should be operated and legislated worldwide.

Lawyers and regulators are the strongest and most cutting edge sectors of the EU economy

Its the reason why we only can compete with the US in legislation heavy businesses, which in the US is also slowed down by bureaucrats such as making planes and cars.

Any other market and any developed country will have us beat.

As a counter-example: Europe is pretty good at artisanal luxury items for rich people. Those are generally fairly lightly regulated.

I guess you haven't spent much time in Europe recently. Deregulation is considered a swear word over there. I do not advise using it around Europeans.

Also, if you say something that sounds like "free speech" their heads explode. It's quite spectacular to watch.

I'm not sure you need to put 'recently' in there.