Brussels, 09/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On 7 March, the European Commission confirmed that it was to withdraw 73 pending legislative proposals, as per an announcement made on 16 December of last year regarding the Commission's working programme for 2015. This announcement led to controversy as, under the programme, legislation on the circular economy (the 'waste' package was withdrawn on 7 March) and air quality will be withdrawn.
The European Commission has promised to come back with improved texts on each of those two subjects at the end of this year or early next, but has so far been unable to respond to concerns surrounding its decision.
On 16 December of last year, the First Vice-President of the Commission, Frans Timmermans, announced the withdrawal of exactly 80 legislative proposals, with 73 of them to be simply scrapped, three withdrawn and reproposed in the event that no agreement can be reached in the first six months on the basis of the existing text, three amended and one evaluated, a spokesperson to the Dutch Vice-President explained. On Monday 9 March, Jean-Claude Juncker's spokesperson denied that the decision had been announced on Saturday in order to deflect attention from it, but explained that “it simply corresponds to the date of publication in the Official Journal”, said Margaritis Schinas. “Today the Commission confirmed its commitment to a better regulation approach which cuts red tape and removes regulatory burdens, contributing to an environment conducive to investment”, the Commission explains in a press release. (Solenn Paulic)