Luxembourg, 06/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - On the basis of the Commission's communication of 18 March, “Improving Regulation for Growth and Jobs” (EUROPE 8911), which provides some foundations for common action for improving the EU regulatory framework and constitutes an essential element in relaunching the Lisbon strategy, the Competitiveness Council on Monday adopted conclusions on improving regulation. The conclusions of the European Council of 22-23 March called on the Commission and Council to continue their work on improving the EU regulatory framework in the aim of greater responsibility and underlining the importance it attaches to the inter-institutional agreement. “Better Legislation” will help attain the legislation objectives without “disproportionate administrates charges” and the Council is calling on the Commission in its conclusion to work actively towards carrying out these objectives in the communication “involving the spreading of impact assessments integrated into new legislative proposals as well as the setting up of a permanent and systematic process simplifying existing legislation in respect of the acquis Communitaire”. The Council also welcomes the fact that the work that the Council and Commission is carrying out in this area includes joint consultation of actors in early stages and puts more stock on the use of external expertise in the goal of transparency and launching a complete and independent assessment of the impact assessment system in 2006. In this context the Council calls on the Commission to study a wide range of solutions in its impact studies, including non-legislative options. Using the experience acquired in the pilot project under the Dutch presidency on proposals on follow-up material in the report of the presidency at the Competitiveness Council last March, the Council is also committed to assessing the level of serious amendments introduced by the Council to legislative proposals. In this respect, it welcomes the prospect for reaching an agreement on such an approach by next June and is committed to continuing work at an inter-institutional level to examine the issue before the end of 2006. The EU25 is also keen on the work in the Commission's pilot project on assessing administrative charges progresses soon in view of developing a common methodology for impact assessment and simplification goals. The Council called on the Commission to pursue its work on legislative simplification and welcomed the Commission imitative of consulting Member States on their priorities in this area. In this context, the Council is counting on responding to the priorities established by the Commission on simplification of legislation. In full respect of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, the Council calls on Member States to strengthen their current efforts to improve the regulatory framework at national levels and envisages the possibility of reviewing their national legislation to see whether it is compatible with EU rules in the goal of lifting trade barriers and opening up the internal market to competition. The United Kingdom, which will be presiding the Council of the EU from 1 July, has presented its calendar of work: the Competitiveness Council will be returning to “better legislation” in its October session.