Ridiculous EU Laws which affect students

It is claimed that 84% of our laws in Britain are made by the EU – Our Prime Minister even admitted that “around half” of the country’s laws are made in Brussels.

The EU elections take place in a matter of weeks so we thought we’d have a look over some of the most stupid laws that have gone through in the past.

Tuition fees 

In light of the fact that the Scottish Government holds a policy of no tuition fees for “home students”, you would think that this would apply to the whole of the UK. However, due to a ridiculous loophole, the term “home students” applies only to Scotland and the rest of the EU, and NOT the rest of the UK.

This means that a student from England/Wales/Northern Irelan have to pay as much as £9,500 per year to study at a Scottish university, while a student from Cyprus, for example pays nothing. The rule allows member states to “discriminate” against other parts of their country, but not against other states – unlucky, England.

However, some students have found crafty ways around it. A few years ago, Northern Irish school leavers were applying for Irish passports in order to come to Scottish universities for free. Very innovative – bonus points to them for exploiting a stupid system.

“Fooled you.”

Car insurance:

In 2011, legislation was passed which ruled that insurance companies could not charge female drivers lower premiums than their male counterparts DESPITE it being proven that women drivers are less likely to be involved in a traffic accident than men. A group of British Conservative MEPs described this law as “utter madness”.

Definitely something for the Everyday Sexism hashtag.

Passenger trust is greatly increased if you’re a “woman” driver, who knew??

Pet horses:

Don’t make your pet horse into a stew or you’ll be breaking EU law. A law  came into place in 2009, stating that it would be illegal to eat “pet”ponies after it was reported that about two million pet horses are eaten on the continent each year.

Of course, some UK supermarkets considered themselves above this law in 2012…

“You’d make a great medium-rare steak.”

Water:

If you’re feeling dehydrated from a solid workout or suffering from the night before, drinking water will NOT ease your pain.

Well, that’s according to the EU. A law was passed in 2011, which claimed that drinking water does not stop dehydration. This law was passed at the height of the Eurozone crisis and during times of mass unemployment across Europe. Nice to see that the EU has their priorities right.

Don’t sweat it – we don’t believe them either

These are just some of the crazy regulations passed by our MEPs. I’ll leave you to make up your mind whether your hard earned tax money should be paying for Europe’s politicians to make up these comical rules.

Voting for the European Parliament takes place on Thursday 22 May.