Flow of Union laws starting to dry up

Date: 05/12/1996

By Rory Watson

THE flow of proposals for new EU rules coming out of the European Commission has slowed to a trickle as the institution moves further away from the legislative crusade of the early Nineties.

An analysis to be presented to Union leaders at their summit in Dublin next week will show that the Commission has so far put forward plans for just six items of legislation since January, and expects its output to rise to only 11 by the end of the year.

The figures mark a dramatic decline in the number of legislative proposals now that most of the measures needed to turn the single market into a reality have been translated into directives, and confirm the change of direction being implemented by Commission President Jacques Santer with his motto of “do less, but better”.

At the same time, as part of its annual spring- cleaning exercise, the Commission has withdrawn 48 separate proposals - compared to 61 last year - which have languished on the Council of Ministers' table for years with little hope of being adopted.

In all, the tidying-up exercise has affected 12 separate EU policy areas ranging from indirect taxation to personnel policy.

Pride of place for longevity goes to the Commission's 1976 proposal for a directive on the elimination of double taxation on the transfer of profits between associated enterprises. After being ignored for two decades, it has now been quietly consigned to the dustbin.

But the biggest clear out has been in the Common Agricultural Policy, where 15 proposals ranging from the minimum price for unginned cotton to import levies on broken rice have been formally shredded.

On the external front, half a dozen projects from the early Nineties for agreements with various former Soviet republics have been overtaken by events, as have eight draft directives on air and maritime transport.

In contrast to the shrinking body of EU law, consultative papers are on the increase. So far this year, the Commission has published 13 Green Papers - with two more promised before Christmas - and three White Papers, as it implements its pledge to canvass a wider circle of views before tabling draft legislation.

The exercise to update EU legislation and make it more user-friendly has focused on six specific policy areas over the past year.

The centrepiece of the programme has been efforts to simplify four areas of internal market legislation: the collection of intra-EU trade statistics, laws governing construction products, the recognition of diplomas and ornamental plants.

The Commission has also proposed the cancellation of five items of legislation on energy and is planning to replace an equal number of directives on water standards with a single framework.