Programme to slim down EU legal measures

Date: 13/06/1996

THE European Commission is preparing to simplify legislation in three key EU policy areas as part of its ongoing commitment to “do less, but better”.

In the vanguard of the programme are plans to slim down existing single market rules and withdraw almost half a dozen legislative proposals aimed at the energy industry. They will be accompanied by moves to simplify environmental measures on water standards.

The Commission's agenda will be presented in a report by President Jacques Santer to EU leaders at next week's Florence summit and is in line with the Union's guiding principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.

Now committed to tabling legislation only when it is proved to be more effective than national measures, the Commission has prepared a check-list of issues its officials must work through before proposing new EU measures.

In addition to slowing down the flow of draft legislation, the Commission is continuing to work out how rules already under discussion or on the statute book can be simplified.

Under an internal market pilot project - aptly named SLIM - it plans to table concrete proposals in November to make legislation in four areas more user-friendly. The exercise involves Union and national officials and industries affected by the legislation, and focuses on technical standards for building materials, mutual recognition of diplomas, legislation on ornamental plants and the statistical system used to measure intra-Union trade.

The Commission is also preparing to recommend the withdrawal of five energy proposals as part of a wide-ranging review of legislation on natural gas, electricity, energy efficiency and the oil industry. By tabling a more general framework directive, Santer and his colleagues also aim to replace five separate measures on water standards with one single piece of legislation.

These wider sectoral changes have been preceded by several individual measures designed to make existing legislation less restrictive. Precise standards set out in six food directives on items ranging from jams to coffee extract have been replaced by horizontal requirements covering hygiene, labelling and ingredients.

As part of its wider pledge to involve more outside interests in the drafting of future legislation, the Commission points out that it has published four consultative Green Papers and two White Papers on issues ranging from financial services to air traffic control.

It is also scouring through other proposals which it believes have been overtaken by events or are no longer relevant and should therefore be taken off the legislative table.