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This is about as rare as… er… a volcanic eruption

It’s Patriots’ Day here in Massachusetts, and in honor of that holiday, here’s a Financial Times story by Joshua Chaffin that reports on a phenomenon that occurs, oh, maybe once a decade or so: the European Union admitting that the U.S. regulatory model is superior on a particular issue. In this case, the issue is the ...

By Daniel W. Drezner, a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

April 19, 2010, 4:14 PM

It's Patriots' Day here in Massachusetts, and in honor of that holiday, here's a Financial Times story by Joshua Chaffin that reports on a phenomenon that occurs, oh, maybe once a decade or so: the European Union admitting that the U.S. regulatory model is superior on a particular issue.

It’s Patriots’ Day here in Massachusetts, and in honor of that holiday, here’s a Financial Times story by Joshua Chaffin that reports on a phenomenon that occurs, oh, maybe once a decade or so: the European Union admitting that the U.S. regulatory model is superior on a particular issue.

In this case, the issue is the prolonged grounding of European flights in response to The Volcano That ~~Cannot~~ Shall Not Be Named:

European officials on Monday acknowledged weaknesses in the computer models that guided their decision to ground thousands of flights during the past week following a volcanic eruption in Iceland.

Many of the flights would have gone ahead under US aviation standards, they said, and urged that these be considered in the future.

The admission is likely to provide ammunition for critics who believe that authorities have shown excessive caution in the wake of the eruption. The airline industry, in particular, has argued that the no-fly zone over much of Europe should be eased.

It is estimated that airspace closures are costing airlines $200m a day in lost revenue….

In the US, air carriers are left with the responsibility to determine whether or not it is safe to fly – a system that [EU director-general for mobility and transport Matthias] Ruete said Europeans should consider adopting in the future. “The American model is not a model of less safety. You just need to look at the statistics to see that,” he said….

I’d just add that the politics of this are highly unusual. Ordinarily, it’s quite easy to point to the direct costs of less stringent regulation, and more difficult to point to the indirect gains. In this case, however, it appears that even Europeans have recognized that maybe they were a bit too risk-averse.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner