| Publisher | Chadwyck-Healey Ltd |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Access |
| Series Details | No.3 June |
| Publication Date | June 1998 |
| ISSN | 0264-7362 |
| Content Type | Overview |
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UK Presidency Conference 'Better government: more effective regulation', Manchester, 9-10 March 1998: The ten step Action Plan, along with suggested follow-up action, is reproduced below: 1. Governments should improve the quality and responsiveness of public administration and services to increase the EU's global competitiveness and improve the service delivered to citizens. - The Member States could consider ways of improving the performance of their public services and administrations at the Directors General of Public Administration meeting to be held in Edinburgh under the UK Presidency. - Ministers for Public Administration might give political impetus to this work at meetings to be held in London in May and Vienna in November 1998. 2. The Commission and the Member States should make better regulation a political priority to free up business to create jobs and wealth. They should consider setting up central units to push forward work on better regulation. - It would be helpful if the Commission and Member States gave greater commitment to simplification both at EU and national levels. - Consideration should be given to establishing central units to co-ordinate and drive through simplification activities. This is in keeping with the Commission's Recommendation to the Member States on facilitating business startups. - There could be regular discussions between Ministers at a Council under each Presidency. The Commission's annual 'Better Lawmaking' report could be discussed by Ministers and used to set out a strategic programme of simplification. - Regular exchanges of best practice among officials from Member States would be a good way of pooling expertise. 3. Rules should be kept as simple and easy to understand as possible to help business comply and to bring Government at all levels closer to citizens. - Greater political impetus could be given to the SLIM initiative to ensure that it delivers demonstrable results. - The Citizens First 'Dialogue with the Citizen' and business signpost service could be used as a mechanism for learning from citizens and business which rules they find too complex and bureaucratic. 4. The Commission should only propose regulation at EU level where the Union can achieve the policy objectives better than the Member States. Full consideration should be given to alternatives to regulation. - The Commission and the Member States should work together to use the opportunity to improve EU regulation presented by the Protocol on Subsidiarity and Proportionality adopted at the Amsterdam European Council. 5. Impact assessment is difficult, but the systems can be improved. Regulators should seek to obtain a clear but simple understanding of the likely impact of proposals on those affected. It is important to get the right balance between reducing risk and imposing burden. - Commission to improve its fiche d'impact assessment system to ensure that the disproportionate burden on small firms and the impact on jobs is fully taken into account. - Member States could share best practice on impact assessment. 6. There accordingly needs to be greater transparency in the regulatory process. Consultation with citizens and business needs to be improved; regulatory impact assessments and the results of consultation should be published on the Internet. - European business test panel pilot schemes to be launched under UK Presidency. - results of impact assessments could be published on the Internet. 7. When proposing new rules, regulators should consider the cumulative burden of regulation that business, and particularly small firms, already have to cope with. - Policy-makers should make efforts to take account of the accumulative burden when proposing new rules. - Identify areas for simplification where the accumulative burden is particularly high. - The Commission and the Member States could work together to produce recommendations on removing barriers to growth, building on the report of the BEST Task Force to be delivered to the Cardiff Summit. 8. To ensure that the full benefits of the Single Market are reaped by business and consumers, the Member States should not add extra burdens and potential barriers to trade by 'goldplating' EU laws when implementing them. - Work between the institutions' legal services to implement the Declaration on the Quality of Legislation adopted at Amsterdam should result in clearer legislation and greater transparency in implementation. 9. EU regulation should be enforced consistently across the Union to gain greater business and public confidence. - All Member States to produce timetables showing when all outstanding legislation will be transposed into national law. - Use of peer pressure, through the Commission's Single Market Scoreboard, to ensure that these timetables are adhered to. - Use of co-ordination centres in each Member State to ensure that all deadlines in the problem-solving process are met. - More use of administrative co-operation so that problems can be solved informally between the policy officials in each Member State concerned. - Commission to improve and accelerate procedures for handling complaints from business and citizens. 10. The Commission and Member States should exploit the potential of IT to simplify life for business and citizens, including the use of one-stop shops. - Information on regulation could be made more readily available using IT. - The Member States might look to make more public services deliverable electronically. Further information: Tel: +44-(0)171-270-1147 |
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| Subject Categories | Culture, Education and Research |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
