Is EU regulation past the high-water mark? It's encouraging, ASI author Keith Boyfield told our seminar on deregulation this week, that all important EU legislative proposals are to be screened for their impact on competitiveness. EU Commissioners seem keen to axe regulations and look at voluntary or other arrangements.

And the Commission says it will move to stop national governments 'gold plating' its directives (a practice at which the UK excels).

A third hopeful sign, said Boyfield, is EU expansion:

Having only just liberated themselves from unwelcome state intrusion in their business and personal lives, the last thing that Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary or Slovakia want is a raft of EU regulatory measures forced on them by Franco-German social democrat politicians.

Indeed, we might even see "regulatory competition" along the lines of tax competition. Financial services might re-locate to Malta – light regulation, not too many annoying civil servants, and even those struggle to implement the EU rulebook. The latest EU scorecard reveals that Malta has failed to implement a total of 617 directives. It's even sunnier than London or Edinburgh. Sounds like the place to be.