Health and Safety Issues in the EU - Essay Example

The report recommended that there should be a role for Whitehall and Minister and the departments were argued to keep a close touch with European Parliamentary process for them to offer revised briefings. Another recommendation was the Deregulation Unit was required to work on a guide by the end of 1993 on the formulation and implementation of EC law in the UK.

In the report, it was noted that the UK approached negotiation and implementation as a separate process to the point that an opinion taken by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) noted that the European Union did have a problem with implementation and compliance (Hall, Smith, and Tsukalis, 2001).

Member states indeed have a delayed experience in the state of implementation of EU law in the transposition of directives as shown by statistics. There is usually an incomplete or incorrect transposition as indicated by statistics of infringement proceedings. In 2002-2005, there has been transposition and application of directive cases up to 78 per cent of them initiated by the European Union against Member States. This indicates very clearly that a problem is experienced by Member States in determining the national method of implementation to give effect to directives (Hall, Smith, and Tsukalis, 2001).

Better Regulation Task Force has always urged the UK government on the need for a better and regulatory impact assessment since the problem of “gold plating” is continuing. The European Commission impact assessments that are supposed to be attached to their legislative proposals are not comprehensive. In addition to the financial impact of the business, it is recommended that their scope is supposed to be extended to require social and environmental impact assessment. Since the European Commission relay on the member state for this kind of information, the assessment has always been noted to be inadequate (Hall, Smith, and Tsukalis, 2001).

The “Gold plating” process will continue to be experienced in the United Kingdom due to government policy. The ministers and local authorities have been applying these EU directives which are not applicable in the country. There have been situations where the ministers and local authorities have been using these European Community’s proposals in their scope of work, therefore, using them as a scapegoat to justify their deeds by citing them. For a better future for the country, it is high time that the United Kingdom should codify and come up with up-to-date national legislation that is applicable.