After banning mis-shapen fruit & veg (unfair discrimination surely?) and proposing a tax on cows breaking wind I thought I had heard it all but, oh no, the Europrats have done it again! The latest Euroidiocy to come to light is the ‘annex to airline security regulations’, a list of prohibited items from cabin baggage that has never been published and kept secret for ‘security reasons’!
It came to light when a tennis player was kicked off a flight because he wanted to take his tennis racket on board, even though he had passed through security with it with no problems whatsoever. The understandably incensed gentleman decided to sue the Austrian Authorities for compensation for failing to inform him he was carrying something deemed to be a terrorist threat. The Austrian Court thought that this matter was of such importance to all airline passengers that they referred it to the European Court of Justice.
Fortunately the European Court of Justice does not appear to suffer the same delusional malaise so prevalent in the European Parliament and ruled that any Act was unenforceable against a person before they had even had the opportunity to learn of it, in this case through the Official Publication, and concluded that the annex to Regulation 622/2003 ‘has no binding force in so far as it seeks to impose obligations on individuals’.
The Spanish MEP who championed the cause, Ignasi Guardans, summed it up perfectly when he said, “It is utterly illogical to produce a list of banned objects from cabin baggage yet not tell anyone what they are. We must all know what is permissible on board an aircraft and what is not.”
Just in case you are wondering the list also includes skateboards, golf clubs and fishing rods!
