German High Court Sides Against Smoking Ban
Europeans have always been known as smokers, and Europe their happy bastion. That latter reputation has, of course, suffered mightily over the last 5-10 years, as countries from France to Ireland have limited or banned smoking in restaurants and bars.
Is this nannying tide against smoking an overwhelming inevitability? Maybe. But as events in Germany indicate, there may be a sliver of reason to hope not.
Germany’s top court upheld complaints Wednesday against anti-tobacco laws in two states, in a ruling with broad implications for a country once seen as a smokers’ paradise.
The Federal Constitutional Court said clauses of laws in the city-state of Berlin and the southwestern region in Baden-Wuerttemberg were unconstitutional because they threatened the livelihood of owners of small bars and clubs.
The six-to-two ruling means that customers in one-room bars and discotheques in the two states can keep lighting up until at least the end of 2009.
More here. Small steps in the right direction closer to home here.
EU to Banish Bendy-Banana Ban
The EU has been great in many ways for member countries. A common currency and free movement across borders have been a boon for trade. On the downside, though, are the many stupid regulations that hinder trade.
The two-class rule for selling fruits & veggies–which creates categories based on conformity to some centrally dictated ideal–has long been one of the banes of sellers and has been responsible for driving up food prices. It’ll be no more, though, reports the Daily Mail, at least for some foods.
Bendy cucumbers and misshapen bananas are to make a comeback on supermarket shelves thanks to a change in EU laws.
Brussels bureaucrats have decided to ease strict guidelines governing the appearance of fruit and vegetables.
It is hoped the move will encourage shops to stock less-than-perfect-looking produce and cut down on the amount of food going to waste.
Under current rules, fruit and vegetables are classified into two grades, with ‘class one’ goods meeting strict criteria on size, shape and appearance.
It means apples are often rejected for being ‘too red’ or carrots for being ‘too wide’.
Although supermarkets can stock cheaper ‘class two’ produce, many choose not to because they believe their customers would not buy it.
Around 26 of the EU’s 36 directives will be abolished, although minimum standards will remain on goods including apples, lettuces and peaches.
More here. The NYT riffed on bendy-banana rules back at the dawn of the EU.
This Little Piggy Was Subsidized, But Now He Goes to Market
Newsweek has a great piece up on European farmers’ newfound embrace of the free market. Why the dramatic shift from their earlier support of subsidies? I guess most EU farmers–though not all–finally herd that subsidies and protectionism don’t work.
Not all that long ago, it was hard to use “European farmers” and “markets” in a single sentence, unless perhaps you included the words “dumping” or “distorted.” Now, thanks to the global surge in the price of food and farm products (buoyed by a new emerging-market middle class), plus a series of important reforms to Europe’s 50-year-old subsidy system, market forces that haven’t been felt in ages are stirring in the continent’s fields, barns and meadows.
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Thanks to a new crop of muckraking European NGOs, more and more EU voters are also starting to see through the shroud of myth surrounding agricultural aid. Transparency groups like UK-based Farmsubsidy.org have dug up lists of subsidy recipients, showing that the biggest profiteers are actually corporate and aristocratic landowners such as Nestlé, Unilever, and the queen of England. In a sign of the changing public mood, Dutch EU Agriculture Minister Cees Veerman barely escaped having to resign in 2005 after his undisclosed subsidy income showed up on the list. New figures also show that 80 percent of the aid goes to the largest 20 percent of farms, exposing as a sham the argument that the system is needed to support small, traditional farmers. A fresh wave of outrage will likely come in 2009, when transparency holdouts Germany and France will be forced to finally publish their lists, thanks to a new directive from Brussels.
Though EU policies are hardly perfect, the Bush administration could learn a thing or two about the free market from Europe–which says as much about how terrible Bush is as it does about how far Europe has come.
