Brussels, 11/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - Any simplification of Community legislation must be accompanied by a simplification at national level. This is the observation made by all the participants at a hearing on the priorities for the simplification and regulation of the single market, which was organised on 10 September by the Economic and Social Committee's Observatory on the Single Market.
Most contributions touched on the fact that the complexity of the legislation is linked to the transposition of the European directives and the differences of interpretation at a national level. In a survey carried out for the ESC for this hearing, out of around a hundred representatives from social and economic groups, 15% of those questioned think that the complexity of the single market is due mainly to the excess of regulation in national administrations, 5% that there is a too technocratic content in European directives and 80% that there is too much of both of these things. 90% of those questioned believe that the simplification of European regulation should be accompanied by a parallel effort in Member States. The "better regulation" action plan presented by the European Commission last June devotes only a few pages to this issue. Bruno Vever, President of the ESC Single Market Observatory declared that, "it would not be possible to deal with the problem without a synchronisation of Community and national efforts".
Participants at the debate posed the question of whether it would be preferable to legislate by way of regulation or by directives. Member States generally prefer directives, which leave them more room for manoeuvre. Dieudonné Mandelkern, President of the high level Council group on regulation simplification, appealed for the current balance between regulation and directives to be maintained and for the development of a directive framework that leaves room for self-regulation of the economic sectors. Susan Binns, director of the committee responsible for the analysis of how the single market works, pointed out that they should not concentrate uniquely on simplification but also on the quality of regulation. Framework directives work if there is, "no fragmentation of the internal market and if mutual recognition works", she warned. It was up to the European Convention to monitor these issues, she added.
Participants called for economic and social actors, as well as the ESC to be better involved in the simplification process and the adoption of legislation and self-regulation agreements. "No-one is hostile to this, it remains to be seen how it works in practice", noted Brun Vever. At the end of November, beginning of December, the ESC is expected to present a new report on simplification. Following this hearing that essentially focused on concept analysis, a new meeting is expected to be arranged with representatives from social and economic milieux in order to analyse the results of simplification.