“Children to be banned from blowing up balloons, under EU safety rules” The Daily Telegraph, 10 October 2011

With the Conservative party leadership indicating that they did not support an ‘in/out’ referendum over the UK’s membership to the EU at last week’s conference, the influence of Brussels on British law has again found itself in the limelight.

Today the Telegraph was among the papers to report that the European Commission was now planning to ‘ban’ a smorgasbord of children’s’ toys

It stated the new EU directive would prevent children from “taking part in traditional Christmas games,” while whistles and toys such as magnetic fishing were now deemed “too risky” due to the small size of their components or their chemical composition.

So, is the EU 'ruining' a Christmas tradition? Full Fact decided to investigate.

Analysis

The new EU directive became law in the UK via the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011 which came into force on 19^th August 2011.

When Full Fact contacted a spokesman for the European Commission to check the Telegraph's claims they confirmed that the Directive did indeed deal with the balloons and ‘whistle blowers’ mentioned by the paper.

Balloons made of latex must carry a warning to parents that children under eight years should be supervised. Furthermore, all toys aimed at children under the age of three should be large enough to prevent them being swallowed.

However as one former head of media for the European Commission’s London office has pointed out, the EU can only “regulate how things are put on the market, but not how they are used in the home.”

Furthermore, these precautions are not new, as the Telegraph article implies. The Commission asserted the new law is in fact enforces the same restrictions on toy safety which has been in place since 1988.

It is also worth noting that the EU is not unique in implementing regulations of this sort, and similar rules exist in the United States.

So in fact the restrictions are neither new, nor dramatically more restrictive than child safety policies in force elsewhere.

Conclusion

Although the claims made by the Telegraph doesn’t misrepresent the content of the EU safety directive, it does appear to exaggerate its case. The EU cannot in fact ‘ban’ the products mentioned, but merely require that warnings are carried on the packaging. Moreover, these are not ‘new’ requirements as the paper implies, and in fact have been in effect for over two decades.