Cliff Notes: The EU

Sunday's Telegraph (UK) captures the hilarity of Brussels:

They have no coastline; no international mariners ply their non-existent territorial waters. You might think that would excuse landlocked Hungary and Slovakia from implementing European Union legislation on safety at sea, but that would be to underestimate Brussels bureaucracy.

The two countries are being threatened with expensive legal action in the European Court of Justice for failing to bring in Europe's maritime laws. . .

"The commission has decided to send a double reasoned opinion to Slovakia on account of its failure to transpose into national law a number of directives on maritime safety, including that of passenger ships and the prevention of pollution from ships," the EC said.

While admitting that Slovakia was "not a maritime state" the commission sought to justify its warning. There are 20 vessels which fly the Slovakian flag but trade elsewhere in the world, it said, and they need to be inspected and certified according to the new criteria. The Slovakian embassy countered that the Slovakian-flagged ships were not of the kind covered by the directive.

"As far as passenger ships are concerned, you're not actually allowed to register them in Slovakia," said Marta Domokova, a spokesman. Resignedly, she added: "We have no coastline but it looks as if we are going to have to implement all these laws anyway."

The Hungarian government was chastised for failing to respect EU laws on the "availability of port facilities for ship-generated waste."

This lack of respect may seem excusable given that Hungary has no visiting ships, no ports and therefore no need for facilities in which to store waste. This, the commission said, was not the point.

The Commission's right; that's not the point. The point is that only Brussels could label such logic a "double reasoned opinion." Says NRO's Andrew Stuttaford, "That’s Brussels for you – out of touch, out of control, and in charge."