Brussels, 14/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the Commission adopted a strategic review of the “Better Regulation” initiative that was launched in March 2005 (see EUROPE 8911). This review analyses progress made until now after two years' work and sets out the next steps and new measures planned. The system for impact assessment of all major new proposals for legislation (third pillar of the initiative) will be beefed up to ensure quality and objectivity through the establishment of an Impact Assessment Board. Furthermore, 43 new initiatives, covering a wide range of sectors (agriculture, manufactured goods, construction products, cosmetics and industrial emissions) have been added to the simplification rolling programme for the period 2006-2009. In total, this new package is aiming for a 25% reduction in the administrative burden on companies by 2012. This could lead to an estimated increase of 1.5% in EU GDP and some €150 billion for investment. However, to achieve this objective, José Manuel Barroso, President of the Commission, and Günter Verheugen, Industry Commissioner, who have made the Better Regulation initiative one of the major lines of their work programme, warned that Member States and regional and local authorities will have to actively join the Commission's efforts.
The Commission's strategic review highlights the progress made since March 2005 on each of the pillars of the “Better Regulation” initiative: - more than 68 Commission proposals pending before the Council and Parliament have been withdrawn (1st pillar, September 2005 programme, see EUROPE 9036); - the full review of Community legal acquis (2nd pillar, October 2005 programme, see EUROPE 90565) rests on two actions: firstly, almost 100 initiatives have to be simplified over the next three years, and the Commission is on course to complete 50 before the end of the year, although a large number of simplifications already completed are still with the Council or Parliament; secondly, codification, to make existing law more manageable, a process of synthesis of provisions of the existing acts and all their subsequent amendments into one single law, now involves about 500 acts in all sectors (in 2007, the Commission will be proposing nearly 100 codification acts to the European Parliament and Council); - more than 160 integrated impact assessments have been completed (3rd pillar), examining the potential social, environmental and economic impact of Commission initiatives, prior to their adoption; - a new approach for measuring the administrative burden associated with forthcoming initiatives has been developed (4th pillar).
The Commission wishes, in addition, to strengthen the “Better Regulation” initiative through an ambitious package of measures: - proposing the launch of a strategy to reduce the administrative burden of existing legislation (4th pillar): for this, the Commission proposes that the Spring European Council sets a 25% reduction target to be achieved jointly by the EU and Member States by 2012; - reinforcing the scrutiny of impact assessments (3rd pillar) through the creation of an Impact Assessment Board which will work under the direct authority of the Commission President and will be responsible for examining draft impact assessments. Members of this Board will be asked to provide an independent opinion on the quality of impact assessment and to offer advice to the departments concerned where improvements may be necessary; - adding a further 43 new initiatives to its rolling programme covering the period 2006-2009 to simplify existing regulations (2nd pillar); - withdrawing a further 10 proposals pending before the legislator in 2007, and regular monitoring of pending legislation in continuing (1st pillar); - setting a target date of 2008 for the finalisation of a programme to reduce the volume of the existing body of EU legislation through codification (2nd pillar).
Messrs Barroso and Verheugen also recommend that any future Commission screen proposals pending at the start of its term of office to check that legislative proposals respond to political priorities (1st pillar). Finally, Messrs Barroso and Verheugen intend to increase preventive measures to reinforce the enforcement of EU laws (facilitating the correct transposition of key directives). Member States will have to produce correlation tables to allow for easier assessment of transposition, transparency and judicial review. “We are moving ahead with an unprecedented drive to cur administrative burdens in Europe. We have been speaking about this for some time, now we are delivering. This will make a real difference to European businessmen,” Mr Verheugen told press, before calling on the European Council, Member States and the European Parliament to “endorse the priorities outlined in our communication as a common agenda for Better Regulation in the European Union and join our efforts”. (eh)