Brussels, 04/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - Any regulation may have a negative impact on the business world, for society as a whole and for the environment. The regulations concocted and adopted in Brussels do not escape this rule. That is why, at the instigation of Romano Prodi, the Commission is to adopt, on Wednesday, a series of measures aimed at improving the quality of European legislation, an approach that aims to contribute to the achievement of the Lisbon Summit objective, that of making the EU the most competitive and the most dynamic knowledge economy in the world in the run up to 2010. Along the lines of the White Paper on Governance, the Commission will present a strategy recommending simplification and improvement of the regulatory environment, an exercise that will above all involve significant physical reduction in the volume of acquis commnautaire (80,000 pages) that the countries applying for EU membership must integrate into their national legislation. In addition to this simplification, it also provides for all new legislative projects to be submitted to more rigorous assessment of their potential impact at the economic, social and environmental levels, an approach that should essentially benefit small and medium-sized enterprises. The Commission also plans to establish a strengthened culture of consultation and dialogue, by intensifying consultation of circles concerned in all the first stages of drawing up new legislative proposals. An Internet portal is, moreover, to be created to allow companies to make criticism against regulations proposed.