Brussels, 02/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - Drawing on a rather positive balance sheet for the 2007-2012 period, the Commission is now presenting the new stages of the REFIT programme that seeks to reduce administrative red tape.
In a communication adopted on Wednesday 2 October, the Commission drew up a ten-year balance sheet for the action it has taken to improve legislation and reduce the burden on business.
5 590 acts repealed since 2005. The reforms begun by the European Commission since 2005 in different areas of action have led to the adoption of 660 initiatives to simplify legislation, as well as the codification and recasting of Community legislation and the repeal of 5,590 legislative acts. Concrete improvements have been introduced in support of SMEs, and between 2007 and 2012 a decrease of 26% of administrative burden for businesses has been achieved, equivalent to annual savings of €32.3 billion. The way in which the Commission has drawn up legislation has developed considerably, given that it has now significantly increased the number of impact studies it carries out, as well as the consultations it organises with stakeholders.
47 evaluations by the end of 2014. In addition to new legislative initiatives to simplify and reduce administrative formalities during examination by co-legislators in several areas (animal health, consumer product safety, market monitoring, public procurement, common consolidated corporate tax band etc), the Commission has also listed areas where it will take action up until 2014 to simplify existing legislation and follow up recommendations made in evaluations where the quality of regulation was concerned. At the end of 2014, the Commission will have carried out or launched 47 evaluations. A particular effort is being made in the areas of the environment, enterprise and industry.
REFIT scoreboard. The Commission has also identified areas where it wants to pursue its evaluations but without introducing further texts (musculoskeletal disorder, computer screens and passive smoking), repealing existing acts (promoting clean road transport vehicles, crude oil supplies and the classification/packaging/labelling of hazardous materials) and withdrawing pending proposals (“soil” directives, the simplification of VAT requirements, European private company status). The Commission has also described new horizontal action that it will be taking, such as identifying administrative obligations resulting from EU legislation and their implementation at a national level. It has also announced the annual publication of a scoreboard for following the progress achieved at European and national levels. (EH/transl.fl)