- The precautionary principle is rarely, if ever, discussed by ordinary people, yet it was a foundational concept of the European Union that now guides all of its policymaking.
- In essence, the precautionary principle is the idea that politics should be guided by the assumption that it is better to be safe than sorry. It effectively proposes that no effort is too great to ward off the risk of danger – no matter how small that risk may be.
- In reality, of course, the precautionary principle is rarely taken to its logical conclusion: the only way, for example, to ward off all risk of traffic accidents would be to ban vehicles altogether.
- But the idea has been widely influential, and guides an approach to EU regulation, planning and policymaking that tends to inflate the importance of mitigating, or even avoiding, risks. The result – from fields as diverse as nuclear policy to public security, farming to town planning – is that technocrats spend an inordinate amount of time demanding and implementing risk-reduction measures to avoid unforeseen consequences.
- Of course, every action, including inaction, has unforeseen consequences, and while the application of due caution is not unreasonable, a balance needs to be struck with other goals and social objectives. Risk is not necessarily a negative concept; taking a calculated risk is often the precondition for growth, innovation and social change. Instead, the EU’s ever-wider application of the precautionary principle has held Europe back for 30 years.
- This precautionary principle was incorporated as a foundational element of the 1992 Treaty on European Union. It has evolved from a vague and contested concept to a quasi-legal one.
- From the first, the EU’s technocratic institutions became world leaders in adopting the precautionary principle. It has since become a defining feature of the EU regulatory mechanisms.
- The idea of the precautionary principle found fertile ground in EU policymaking because of the uniquely depoliticised form of the EU institutions. The EU was designed and directed as a system of managerialist governance – that is, dedicated to managing rather than changing society, and governance through experts and technocrats rather than government by elected politicians. In this, the EU found the precautionary principle a useful ally. It provides authority to a supposed expert class who are called on to assess and manage risks – a boon to an EU bureaucracy whose legitimacy rests on their claim to do just that.
- The remit of the precautionary principle has expanded relentlessly from environmental policy through human health to now encompassing and impacting almost all EU policies, including regional aid, transport and financial services. Over the past 30 years, it has had a particularly severe impact on European agriculture – a sector already under considerable strain.
- Even more important than the role the precautionary principle plays in EU law is its wider social and political influence. The principle is now such a bedrock assumption of the EU legal, political and financial elites that it is rarely even openly acknowledged.
- The precautionary principle is not something that is open to revision. We cannot simply try to improve the balance between precaution and action. The precautionary principle is not a good idea that is just badly applied. Instead, the principle as an outlook must be jettisoned in its entirety. Doing so would reopen Europe to the spirit of innovation, dynamism and positive risk-taking that are needed to drive its people on to a better future.
- Rejecting the precautionary principle is the condition for Europe’s economic, cultural and political renewal.
