In article ,
Adrian wrote:
On Tue, 21 Jun 2016 06:28:14 -0700, Halmyre wrote:

On yesterday's Newsnight, Michael Howard stated that the EU had
overturned a law passed by the Scottish parliament. Evan Davis didn't
challenge this - I'd guess, like me he didn't know what was being
referred to. And despite some Googling, I can't find out either.

And then stated it was very likely to do the same with a UK one in the
pipeline. Which wasn't expanded on or challenged either.

I'd be surprised if the UK government introduced a bill they knew would
be against EU law, but who knows? If anyone can explain both of his
statements, I'd be grateful.

The nearest I can find is that the EU *might* overturn the Scottish
government's *proposal* (law not yet passed) for minimum alcohol
pricing, saying it *might* be in contravention of free-trade laws. Note
the caveats. This of course has been jumped on by some as being set in
tablets of stone.

Yup. What the ECJ said last December was that the minimum pricing MIGHT
be restrictive to free trade, if it prevented cheaper suppliers from
elsewhere in the EU from competing through reduced pricing.

What they ALSO said was that the ultimate decision was in the hands of
NATIONAL COURTS. They also explicitly said that, if the minimum pricing
could be shown to have a health benefit that couldn't be achieved in a
more general way, then it wouldn't be a problem... But, generally,
increasing pricing through general tax would be a better solution.

http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/d...n/pdf/2015-12/
cp150155en.pdf

Thanks guys. Must watch it again to see if I got the wrong end of the
stick. My impression was he was definite it had already been over-ruled.
If it hasn't been passed and then over-ruled no wonder I couldn't find
details.

--
*There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count & those who can't.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.