This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Euromyth is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008) |
A euromyth is an urban legend specifically relating to the European Union (EU). Euromyths can be either wholly untrue or a deliberate distortion of the facts. Those who use the term allege that the Eurosceptic press distort stories about EU policies to portray the EU in a bad light.
Euromyths are in some case largely fictional but in other cases are based on a distorted version of what is truth (considered from the perspective of the person using the term). They may also stem from a misunderstanding. Yet other euromyths are drawn from working papers, policy suggestions or individual ideas, and are presented as a fixed decision being enacted when in fact they may simply be a mere proposal that has little chance of being realised as a piece of legislation.
Euromyths can also arise when the actions of an independent European organisation (e.g. the European Committee for Standardization) are erroneously attributed to the EU and its power to make binding laws.
Contents |
Euromyths in the media
On the 23 July 2003 The Times ran the following story; "Circus performer must walk tightrope in hard hat, says Brussels. A tightrope-walker says that his career has been placed in jeopardy by legislation originating in Brussels which dictates that he must wear a hard hat to perform". This story stemmed from new EU laws which were introduced to protect workers who operate at height but, in the legislation in question, there is no mention of hard hats or circus performers. [1]
Also in 2003 the BBC reported that a council in Wiltshire had had to remove swings from a village because, under EU regulations, they were considered "too high". [2] As with many Euromyths, there was both fact and fiction in the story: the BBC article continues to note that the EU did not in fact insist that the swings were removed but points out that the council itself chose to remove the swings as the framework itself was considered to be dangerously high under the new EU regulations.
Other examples follow a similar pattern:-
Straight Rhubarb
"Crackpot Euro chiefs have decreed British rhubarb must be straight. Farmers will have to throw away crooked stalks under barmy new rules. The order follows a review of community fruit and vegetable standards by the EU agricultural directorate". The Sun, 24 June 1996, page 11.
In fact the European Union has never planned to set, or recommend, any such marketing rules for rhubarb but it did set out grading standards for fruit and vegetables and an attempt was made to prosecute the British supermarket chain Asda for breaching grading standards. [3]
Truck Drivers to eat Muesli
According to the EU commission in Australia and New Zealand [4] it was reported in several British newspapers that Truck drivers were going to be forced to stop eating 'fry-ups' and be forced to eat Muesli and Croissants by the EU.
In fact the EU was merely planning guidelines for truck drivers which focussed on health and safety issues such as diet. The legislation was mainly concerned with enforcing driver training and conveying information on the importance of rest and responsible driving. There was no mention of "being forced to eat muesli".
(This story also appears in the BBC quiz on the EU and "Euromyths" [5])
One-size Condoms
The EU condom regulation story was a highly successful April Fools' joke by Radio Netherlands that used wide-spread suspicion of what many saw as the regulatory zeal of the European Commission to make an impact. It was picked up by many newspapers and radio stations in Europe.
On 1 April 2007 Vanessa Mock, a journalist at the Brussels bureau of Radio Netherlands broke a story about a European Commission proposal to strictly regulate the size of condoms in the European Union. Amongst others, it included interviews with a Commission spokesman and a Member of the European Parliament and credibly argued that regulation was necessary to ensure competition and a level playing field for small condom makers - an argument regularly made in real life by the European Commission, one of whose many roles is to regulate the EU's internal market and uphold competition. [6]
In fact the EU is not involved in setting condom standards. The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) is a voluntary body made up of national standards agencies and affiliated industry/consumer organisations from nineteen European countries. It has nothing to do with the EU. [7]
References
See also
External links
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 22 December 2008, at 07:37.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Euromyth".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.