Brussels, 16/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 15 December, the General Affairs Council endorsed an interinstitutional agreement (among the three EU institutions) on better law-making.
The agreement aims to improve cooperation between the Council, EP and European Commission to ensure the EU introduces simpler, more understandable legislation with least possible burden for interested parties, particularly small businesses.
When it comes to the Commission's annual work programme, the agreement states that the Council shall consult the Commission and European Parliament.
The agreement also provides for more expert consultations by the Commission before it adopts delegated acts.
The Commission had proposed that the EP and Council should themselves carry out impact assessments for each major amendments to the Commission's proposals. The interinstitutional agreement waters down this demand - the EP and Council will be required to carry out impact assessments only where they feel appropriate and necessary, in order to avoid lengthy delays in the legislative procedure and to preserve the legislative autonomy of the co-legislators (this was an important demand for the EP).
The agreement aims to improve communication to the public during the whole legislative cycle and the Council and the Parliament have pledged to draw up a register of delegated acts.
The Council, Parliament and Commission undertake to do more to simplify EU legislation. Every year, the Commission will publish a progress report in this domain, indicating where appropriate reductions in the administrative burden and potential economies in legislative proposals.
On Wednesday 16 December, the Commission announced that it has approved the appointment of the 18 members of the stakeholder group of the new REFIT Platform, an important tool to identify how existing laws might be improved with the help of those that have to comply with them. These are important steps in implementing the Better Regulation for Better Results Communication that the Commission adopted in May 2015. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)