Agenda voorjaarstop: minder bureaucratie, schrappen van "comateuse" Commissie-voorstellen, evalueren administratieve lasten van EU-wetgeving (en)

Progress report and outlook

The Commission's better regulation activities contribute to achieving the Commission's strategic objectives and were given added impetus through the key role which `improving the regulatory environment' plays in the relaunched Lisbon process. The Commission announced a range of important initiatives aimed at pursuing the Better Regulation (BR) objective: the screening of pending legislation, simplification, revised Impact Assessment guidelines, administrative costs and the appointment of a High Level Better Regulation group, all of which have since been launched or completed.

The better regulation initiative covers the following areas:

• 1. 

  Simplifying the regulatory environment

In October 2005 the College adopted a strategy for the simplification of the regulatory environment. It contains a series of commitments of which the most ambitious is a rolling programme listing 220 basic legislative acts to be reviewed over the next three years. 54 simplification initiatives are listed in the Rolling Programme for 2006 (Annex 1).

Furthermore, the Commission also adopted in 2005 two sectoral proposals on "Simplification and Better regulation for the Common Agricultural Policy" and on "2006-2008 Action Plan for Simplifying and Improving the Common Fisheries Policy".

Delivery by the Commission is only half the story if these efforts are to succeed. It is the responsibility of Council and Parliament to carry this simplification work forward to the final stages. In total, 20 simplification proposals are currently pending before the Council and the European Parliament (Annex 2).

• 2. 

  Screening and withdrawal of pending Commission proposals

The screening of proposals pending before the legislator since before 1 January 2004 announced in the March 2005 `Better Regulation for Growth & Jobs' Communication has now been completed. On 8 March the Commission confirmed its intention to withdraw 67 proposals as an outcome of the screening of pending proposals announced in its September Communication (one proposal included among those 68 originally selected for withdrawal has since been adopted by the Legislator and has, therefore, been removed).

• 3. 

  Better Impact Assessments

Impact assessments are required since January 2005 for all proposals in the priority list of the Commission's Legislative Working Programme. The Commission has completed over 120 Impact Assessments to date. IA is a powerful tool for the Commission and can, if properly done and taking into account the principle of proportionate analysis, ensure a comprehensive analysis of economic, social and environmental impacts, thus providing key insights to support the policy making process. This process is supported by the Commission's strict consultation standards, guaranteeing a transparent process with the stakeholders.

• 4. 

  Measuring administrative costs of legal acts

Businesses' activity can be severely hampered by unnecessary administrative costs which can be either embedded in existing legislation or introduced through new legislation. In October 2005, the Commission endorsed a methodology for measuring administrative costs (the Commission's Net Administrative Cost Model) for use in its impact assessment, whenever Commission initiatives are likely to have significant administrative costs.

The Commission's Annual Progress Report published on 25 January stated that "the Commission will launch a major exercise to measure the administrative cost arising from Community rules (or the way in which they have been implemented) in specific policy areas as part of the ongoing work on legislative simplification, with a special emphasis on SMEs. It will identify what share of these costs flows directly from the Community rules and what share can be attributed to their implementation by Member States". In order to prepare the ground for the above mentioned initiative, a pilot project is now being launched which will analyse how administrative costs accumulate on a sector.

Better cooperation with Member States: A High Level Group for Better Regulation

The Commission has been taking concrete steps to provide the necessary momentum in its dialogue with Member States on the BR agenda. A High Level Group for Better Regulation was established in 2005 and met several times during 2005. It is composed of high-level national experts appointed by the Commission acting on proposals from the Member States, and open for observers from acceding countries.

The role of this group is to advise the Commission on better regulation issues in general and it is intended to provide an efficient interface between the Commission and key governmental authorities in the Member States in order to assist the Commission in improving the regulatory environment for enterprises, industry, consumers, the social partners and citizens at large. It shall not, however, give its opinions on initiatives or projects concerning the development of specific legislative proposals.

Annex 1

Simplification Rolling Programme for 2006

(updated 23 February 2006)