Euro enlightenment

The European Commission's office in London has produced a booklet intended to turn the tide of ignorant Euroscepticism in Britain. ‘The EU: What's in it for me?' is billed as “a no-nonsense guide for UK citizens to what the European Union delivers”. The guide sets out to explain to UK citizens “where their money is going [and] what benefits they enjoy in return”. Well...up to a point. The section on “making our food and environment safer” omits to mention that of the €8.7 billion that the UK received from the 2006 budget (even before the rebate), €4.4bn went on UK farming and rural development – mainly big agri-business, presumably because most UK citizens don't benefit.
The booklet also has an unfortunate photo-caption: “The CE label on toys means that they comply with European safety rules.” Well, as events in the toy industry this year have shown: no it does not. The toys recalled by Mattel this summer carried a CE label. What the label means is that Mattel asserts that the products comply with European safety rules – until it decides otherwise.
Another photograph is of Fountains Abbey, which the caption tells us has been granted “£370,000 from the EU-funded Converting Sacred Spaces project”. Nothing factually wrong with that, but it might ring hollow with those British readers who remember that the then finance minister Gordon Brown announced in November 2000 that he was going to ask the Commission to reduce the rate of VAT on repairs to historic churches. The Commission and other EU finance ministers did not co-operate and Brown was forced to introduce a reimbursement scheme without any help from the EU. It was not an episode that won the EU many friends in Britain.