Brussels, 08/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the incoming Dutch Presidency confirmed information published by Tuesday's The Times that it plans to launch an initiative, during the second half of this year, to cut red tape and reduce the administrative burden on European citizens and businesses. "The Dutch Presidency will try to draw the European partners' attention to the inconvenience and the disadvantages (notably for the European economy) of Community legislation with excessive administrative burdens on the citizens and business of Europe", a Dutch diplomat told EUROPE. "We will be raising this issue, but it has not yet been decided how", he said. "There are several options. These concern both procedures when new legislation is being prepared (making certain it is really necessary), and whether existing legislation should be kept in force or not. We are still working on these various options", he said.
The official programme of the Dutch Presidency, which is currently available only in Dutch, stipulates (in the chapter on the Lisbon process) that one objective should be to "grant much attention to the simplification of legislation, and the reduction of the administrative burden".