2 maart: Expertgroep gaat Commissie adviseren over vereenvoudiging van wetgeving

IP/06/254

Brussels, 2 nd March 2006

Better regulation: Commission seeks expert advice to cut red tape on all levels

Better regulation is essential to generate more growth and employment in Europe and to make life easier for enterprises and citizens. In order to drive this process forward the Commission has set up a new group of national regulatory experts who will advise the Commission on its general strategy to simplify and improve European legislation and to facilitate the development of better regulation measures at both national and EU level. The group will be an efficient interface between the Commission and key governmental authorities at the Member State level in order to assist the Commission in improving the regulatory environment for enterprises, industry, consumers, the social partners and citizens at large.

Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen responsible for enterprise and industry policy said: " Better regulation is a centrepiece of the European Commission's partnership for growth and jobs. But cutting red tape on the EU level is not enough. Member States have to do their part. This is why this initiative is so important"

The group is composed of high-level national experts appointed by the Commission, acting on proposals from the Member States, and is open for observers from acceding countries. To better concentrate on improving the general regulatory policy for enterprises, industry, consumers, the social partners and citizens at large, the HLG should not give opinions on specific legislative proposals.

Chaired by the Commission, the group's task is to:

• provide an efficient interface between the Commission and key governmental authorities;
• contribute to the spread of best practices developed both at EU level and at national level;
• strengthen cooperation between the Commission and the Member States with a view to implementing better regulation at national level;
• contribute to the development of a coherent set of common indicators to monitor progress as regards the quality of the regulatory environment both at EU level and in the Member States themselves, as a basis for benchmarking within their national Lisbon programmes;
• advise the Commission on better regulation issues, in particular:
• simplification of EU legislation;
• the assessment of economic, social and environmental impacts, including administrative costs;
• consultation practices; and
• the various options of regulation possible.

Background

The Commission is actively delivering on its commitments to modernise EU legislation and cut unnecessary red-tape and over-regulation. In particular, the implementation of the Commission simplification rolling programme will lead in the next three years to the repeal, codification, recast or modification of more than 220 basic legislations (representing all in all more than 1,400 related legal acts). For example, 50% of the car legislation will be repealed in favour of existing UN-regulation (UNECE). Furthermore, the simplification programme will be regularly updated with new simplification packages (see IP/05/1343). Since the beginning of 2004, all new Commission proposals have to be subject to an extensive assessment of their impacts.
More information:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/regulation/better_regulation/simplification.htm

lees ook EurActiv over dit onderwerp.