Following a decade of deregulatory initiatives under the outgoing European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, the new President, Jean-Claude Juncker, looks set to oversee another five years of weakening of legislation and scrapping of rules, especially environmental and social protections.
This briefing, from Friends of the Earth Europe and Corporate Europe Observatory, explains how initiatives are misleadingly branded as “tackling red tape” or “safeguarding competitiveness” when in reality they are about reducing standards that protect people and the environment.
It warns that the structure of the new Commission indicatives no end to the crusade for big business-friendly deregulation.