Daniel Hannan has used his latest column in The Daily Mail to reveal 10 imminent “bombshells” which UK government officials have “colluded in Brussels” to keep secret until after June 23. However, none is nearly as explosive as the Eurosceptic MEP claims.
1. Arts import licences
Hannan says “Brussels plans an import licensing regime” which would subject London’s global fine arts trade to “more cost and bureaucracy than overseas rivals”.
What he doesn’t mention is that the proposals are purely aimed at stopping the trade in cultural goods financing terrorism. The Commission has already recognised that they must be “very careful to ensure that any potential proposal in this area would not disrupt the legitimate art market, nor put EU art dealers at a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis their global competitors”.
2. A bigger EU budget
Hannan says: “By the EU’s own admission, its unpaid bills amount to €24.7 billion.” This was true at the end of 2014, but the European Council has since reported that “difficult decisions made by the two arms of the EU budgetary authority” were set to reduce this to €2 billion by the end of this year.
3. Wrecking our ports
Hannan says new competition proposals will “hit some of our most successful ports” and deter investment. The proposed regulation actually introduces to all European ports the open market principles that already apply in the UK. Such a measure would help British ports from unfair competition by subsidised ports elsewhere in the EU.
4. Quotas for online TV
Hannan slams proposals by the Commission to make on-demand TV providers reserve 20% of their content for European programming, saying this will mean “more Euro-noir, less US drama”.
These fairly modest targets – already met by traditional TV – are designed to protect European film industries from US behemoths. The British industry would benefit disproportionately since English is the most commonly spoken foreign language in the EU.
The Commission points out that 21% of Netflix’s content is already from the EU – including lots of British films and shows. If the UK left the EU, our shows might no longer count towards the quota. Hannan could have a pyrrhic Brexit victory, tainted for him by more Nordic-noir on his Netflix.
A controlled explosion
Hannan wrote about a further six “bombshells” which InFacts has previously defused: an EU Army, a European superstate, feeble energy-saving appliances, eurozone bailouts and deportation of terrorists. And just for good measure, the warning of free movement for Turkey if it ever joins the EU.
InFacts contacted Daniel Hannan but received no response.