Brussels, 14/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Commission decided to withdraw 108 legislative proposals pending from before 1999 and that are no longer of a topical nature, and in compliance with its strategy to simplify and improve Community legislation.
This decision concerns proposals under the responsibility of most Directors General, of which here is a sample: - Companies (1 Act): draft decision concerning the opening of negotiations between the Community and the Swiss Confederation in view of concluding an information exchange agreement in the field of technical rules (1995); - Employment (8Acts): draft directive complementing implementation of the principle of equal treatment between men and women in legal and professional social security schemes (1987), draft decision on the action programme in the fight against social exclusion (1993), draft decision relating to the implementation of the principle of equal treatment between men and women regarding access to employment, training and professional promotion and working conditions (1996); - Agriculture (6 Acts): draft decision on the conclusion of an interim agreement between the separate customs territories of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, on the one hand, and the European Community, on the other (1997), draft regulation establishing special provisions for quality wines (1998): - Transport (13 Acts): draft directive on the maximum level of alcohol authorised for drivers of vehicles (1988), on the development of Community railways (1995), on the introduction of rational planning techniques in the gas and electricity distribution sectors (1995), and on the setting for certain road vehicles of maximum dimensions authorised for national and international traffic and maximum weights authorised for international traffic (1998); - Environment (4 Acts): draft decision on the adoption, on behalf of the Community, of amendments to annexes to the Convention on the protection of the marine environment in the area of the Baltic Sea (1999); - Fisheries (1 Act): draft amendment, for the second time, to the 1998 regulation on the conservation and control of fisheries activities in the Atlantic (1999); - Internal Market (2 Acts): draft directive on certain guarantees required in Member States to guarantee the interest of companies and third parties regarding the structure of limited companies (1972); - Tax/customs union (8 Acts): draft regulation on measures to take to prevent the misappropriation of certain substances for the unlawful manufacture of drugs (1998), draft decision authorising Portugal to introduce or maintain reductions of exemptions of excise duties for certain mineral oils (1999); - Health/consumer protection (7 Acts): draft amendment to the 1970 directive on additives in animal feed (1999); - Justice/home affairs (5 Acts)Council draft Act establishing the Convention on rules for the admission of third country nationals into Member States (1997), draft directive relating to the abolition of controls on people at internal borders (1995): - external relations (33 Acts): this is especially a question of draft protocols dating back to the 80s concerning association agreements with third countries (Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria); - Trade (4 Acts): draft directive dating back to 1999 on the conclusion of a protocol of an agreement between the Community and Vietnam on fraud prevention (trade in products in the shoe sector), and drat regulation of 1999 on definitive duties applied to the import of pocket lighters with flints, gas, non-rechargeable, originating in Japan; - Development (2 Acts); - Enlargement (6 Acts): draft decision on the participation of the Slovak Republic in Community programmes in the field of culture (1998), draft decision dating back to 1990 on the conclusion of a financial protocol between the EEC and Turkey: - Administration (4 Acts): 1991 draft regulation altering certain temporary measures on the definitive cessation of work for temporary Community agents and officials.