Daily Inspiration Quote by John Hutton

“Better regulation” is one of those bureaucratic phrases that sounds self-evidently virtuous while quietly carrying a knife. Hutton’s line is built to neutralize that threat. The intent is tactical: to reclaim a reform slogan that, in Brussels and in national capitals, often functions as a polite cover for deregulation. By stating what “better regulation” does not mean, he tries to preempt the predictable political move where efficiency gets translated into “fewer protections,” and “flexibility” becomes a synonym for weaker labor rights.

The subtext is a coalition-management problem. Member states and EU institutions don’t just disagree on policy; they disagree on the story Europe tells about itself. The pro-market camp frames social protections as red tape throttling competitiveness. Hutton flips that frame: health and safety and “social standards” aren’t sentimental add-ons, they’re part of Europe’s legitimacy. He’s signaling to unions, social democrats, and anxious workers that reform will not be a Trojan horse. At the same time, he leaves the door open to change by not defining what “better” is, only what it mustn’t become.

Context matters: this is the language of the mid-2000s onward, when EU “simplification” drives, competitiveness agendas, and enlargement pressures made social dumping a live fear. The line works because it treats regulation not as paperwork, but as a moral infrastructure - and because it understands that in Europe, the fight is rarely over rules alone, but over which version of Europe those rules are meant to defend.