That's un oeuf!4

There seems
to be some confusion over whether British eggs are under threat – or at least
the practise of selling them by the half dozen. Is the EU really planning
to ban it?

In a nutshell,
it is happening, and chances are it won’t.

There is
legislation in the pipeline; the mechanics are set out succinctly here.

There is also
an established track record. Notwithstanding the Commission’s favourite list of
so-called “Euromyths”, there has been EU-level legislation on the permitted curvature
of bananas, cucumbers, and even leeks. Harmonisation of volume, shape and scale
is seen as an obvious adjunct to the Single Market, rather than as a marker of
national identity or a familiar tool to the individual.

On the
other hand, the measure is obviously controversial, and has yet to be signed
off.

The basic
constant is that the earlier the public becomes aware of some outrageous
proposal, the easier it is for governments to block it – or indeed for the
Commission to realise measures have gone a step too far. The final shape of much
of the legislation that has previously featured in the pages of the Express, Mail or Sun has the
contentious clauses dropped in the end precisely because of the level of scandal
raised.

I rather
doubt that the familiar egg pack will now be under threat, at least for another
few years (these things are cyclical). The journalists have done us a service.
But you can bet your bottom dollar that the proposed loss of the familiar egg
carton will now join the list of “Euromyths”; embarrassments that in truth were
near-misses, had we not had such attentive MEPs, staff and journalists on the
job.

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Lee Rotherham

Lee is a Research Fellow at the TPA. Co-author of the hit Bumper Books of Government Waste, he is an extensively published EU expert and front bench adviser.

Follow @the_tpa