How does the European Union affect Government Policy decisions in the UK?
Britain is bound by the treaties and pacts of the EU and decisions made by the government have to be congruent with these treaties. Such as the growth and stability pact which means that Britain cannot allow its budget deficit to go above a certain amount for too long or the fact that treaties prevent anticompetitive taxes on European goods. Britain is also bound by directives and regulations that the EU makes that it is obliged to make law in its own country. Equality legistlation for example is a result of equality directives in the EU. The European union also influences through international projects like the antipoverty projects in the 1990s funded by the EU: these projects worked with national civil servants and community groups and introduced new concepts and theories which became incorporated into poverty policy in many countries. There are also softer agreements and intranational monitoring groups that diffuse information among each other about how to best make policy that also
