The European Movement UK (EM UK) welcomes today’s news that EU equality laws are to be reinstated but calls on the Government to do the same on food, environmental and chemical standards.
The news comes after years of campaigning from charities, civil society and trade unions who joined the European Movement to campaign against the Retained EU Law Bill introduced by Liz Truss and Jacob Rees-Mogg. Earlier this year campaigners were successful in forcing the Government to water down legislation that would have given powers to ministers to delete thousands of laws and standards that the UK helped create as a member of the European Union.
While today's news marks the latest win in EM UK's campaign to safeguard the laws and standards, we have come to take for granted, it is clear that we must continue to campaign to defend our rights and standards.
As part of its Save our Standards campaign, EM UK is calling on the Government to commit to retaining or improving key legislation on wildlife protection, animal welfare, environmental protections, and food standards.
Sir Nick Harvey, CEO of European Movement UK, said:
“EM UK has campaigned long and hard on safeguarding the rights and standards afforded to us by EU law, in particular those protecting employees in the workplace. We have raised concerns about the divergence of workers' rights on many occasions, and repeatedly called on the Government to ensure alignment with the EU for the protection of workers and stability for businesses.
“We welcome the Government waking up to the obvious. Despite all of the political pressure to diverge, they have chosen alignment with the EU on this occasion.
“This is only the first step in the right direction. There are thousands of laws protecting our food, environment, animals and wildlife that remain at risk. Government must put an end to this never-ending uncertainty, which is risking harm to our economy, our environment and even our health.
“As part of our Save our Standards campaign, EM UK is calling on the Government to provide a legally binding guarantee that they won’t slash our standards or drop EU laws which positively build on our established regulations and standards.”
If you have not joined the tens of thousands of people supporting EM UK's Save Our Standards campaign you can sign up here.