Prodi outlines plans to improve law-making

Date: 16/11/00

By Simon Coss

EUROPEAN Commission President Romano Prodi is putting the finishing touches to a report he hopes will silence critics who complain that his institution has become a bureaucratic paper mill.

The report on Better Lawmaking 2000 is set to be adopted at a meeting of the full Commission before the end of this month and presented to EU leaders at December's Nice summit.

Officials say it is aimed in part at pinpointing areas where the Commission should push for legislation to be adopted at European level, and those where it should instead take a back seat and let local or regional governments tackle particular issues.

"This initiative is very much based on the idea of subsidiarity," explained one. "Sometimes we have found that problems exist at European level but that the best way to solve them is not by EU-wide laws but by local action on the ground in the Union's member states."

Critics argue that the Commission produces hundreds of reports, studies and consultative documents every year which do not lead to concrete proposals for legislation. Officials say Prodi's paper will examine whether these documents are necessary, but insist the vast majority are worthwhile. "Often the conclusion we draw after launching a consultation on a particular issue is that new EU legislation is not needed. In such cases we will obviously not come forward with a proposal but that does not mean the study was a waste of time," explained one.

The report also will address concerns that the Commission does not consult widely when preparing proposals for legislation. Citizens' rights groups complain that the Commission typically sounds out a small circle of Brussels-based lobby groups when drafting new laws but excludes other individuals and organisations who might also provide useful input.

"If you do not consult widely, legislation tends to reflect the strongest, most vested interests and becomes rather sectoral," warned Tony Venables, headof EU citizens' rights group ECAS, who claims the institution has a patchy record on this score. "On issues like the environment or the recent debate surrounding a new round of world trade negotiations, the Commission did very well," he said. "But on the question of rules governing access to documents, for example, the consultation process was extremely poor."

Venables also wants more ad hoc bodies set up to counter the influence of the formal consultative committees which already feed into the EU policy debate. "Where you have formal structures they can easily become atrophied. Take the issue of food safety, for example. Most of the committees advising the Commission at the moment were created at a time when the Common Agricultural Policy was at the centre of the debate. But now things have changed," he said.

European Commission President, Romano Prodi, is putting the finishing touches to a report he hopes will silence critics who complain that his institution has become a bureaucratic paper mill. The report on 'Better Lawmaking 2000' is set to be adopted at a meeting of the full Commission before the end of November 2000 and presented to EU leaders at December's Nice summit.