I suspect that what we have here is the usual half-researched, EU scare story nonsense written by semi-comatose journos who can't be bothered to leave the bar long enough to check the facts.
Trouble is, they aren't at the bar in the first place, but chained to a desk in an office miles away from anywhere, with only Google and Wikipedia for company. Who needs to check the facts when there's the Global Interweb? At least there was a collective wisdom at the bar, and someone about to stuff up would be told "You're barking up the wrong tree, pal; you should talk to Charlie".
On the regs -- Sometimes (and this is one of them) I think maybe regulators regulate not because they care about safety or want the world to be lovely, but because they just like regulating. They're the unpopular kids at school, getting their own back. And they're puritans; and as someone once said, the great terror of the puritan is that someone, somewhere, may be having a good time...