Even pro-Europeans don’t like the EU

It comes to something when even those predisposed to like the EU decide that they don’t like what the EU actually does:

If opponents of the European Union are looking for evidence of political meddling and overreach, they could hardly find a better example than the new draft directive on alternative investment fund management. The proposal, aimed at imposing new regulation on hedge funds and private equity, is a politically driven effort to place obstacles in the way of an industry that is almost exclusively based in the US and the UK. It makes a mockery of any notion of subsidiarity – taking decisions at the lowest possible level – and is a classic exercise in closet protectionism.

I say this as a committed European and a member of the advisory council of Business for a New Europe (BNE), which strongly supports the UK’s active engagement in Europe. Indeed, BNE was set up to promote a reformed, enlarged and free-market EU.

This is something that we find all too often. People being generally in favour of “Europe” and “cooperation” and all that kittens are cute sort of stuff. But when it comes to the actual activities of the EU, in an area where people have some expertise, no one actually likes what they do.