Brussels, 29/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Broad consensus emerged at the Competitiveness Council on Thursday 29 September during a debate among industry and single market ministers. This was the first day of their two days of meetings to settle three problems identified in the new strategy, published by the Commission on 1 June, to update the EU regulatory system.
The Commission says that modernisation is required not only to expand the single market, but also to make Europe more competitive internationally. It has identified three problems: (1) the process of drawing up and passing EU rules takes too long and the rules are often out-of-date or not appropriate by the time they are introduced due to rapid changes in the world under the influence of globalisation and technological change; (2) largely due to a lack of highly qualified experts, many rules governing information and communication technologies are not drawn up by European standardisation bodies, but instead by forums and global consortiums, and are only rarely set out in public procurement specifications, which hinders interoperability in the equipment used by state bodies; (3) there is insufficient representation of small business and other societal stakeholders in the process of drawing up EU rules, which means that the rules are often ill-suited to the task or difficult to incorporate (being over-complex and over-costly to apply).
In the debate, the ministers said they were in favour of a speeding up of the process of drawing up and introducing European rules, ensuring high levels of quality and transparency. Suggestions made included shortening administrative deadlines and possibly introducing a multi-annual programming period; referring to and giving legitimacy in EU legislation to standards set by forums and consortiums, as long as they are reliable and accepted at the WTO. To this end, the use of private experts and member states was recommended, with greater involvement in the drawing up of legislation from small business and other parties, particularly by putting the consultation process online and making use of videoconferencing. Some ministers said that participation in the process should be free-of-charge for small businesses and the importance of translation of rules and standards must not be overlooked. (FG/transl.fl)