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Simplification of legislation
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Simplification of legislation
Simplifying legislation means weeding out the superfluous by rigorously applying the tests of whether it is necessary and proportionate. The exercise mainly involves the recasting and formal or informal consolidation of legislation.
This concept has grown in importance since the White Paper on the Completion of the Single Market and was explicitly put forward by the Edinburgh European Council in 1992. Over the past decade a concentrated effort has been made to establish a market guaranteeing the four freedoms, but this has meant a wealth of European legislation. Simplifying this mass of law has now become a priority in order to ensure that Community action is transparent and effective. A pilot programme (Simplification of Legislation for the Internal Market - SLIM) covering four specific areas was launched in May 1996 and will be extended to other areas.
A declaration on the quality of the drafting of Community legislation is attached to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference (1997). It recommends that the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission lay down guidelines for improving the form of legislation.
On 5 June 2002, the Commission published the action plan "Better lawmaking" and undertook to "legislate less but better". The Council of Ministers is currently setting up a new working group to implement this plan. In parallel, the European Convention on institutional reform, set up following the Laeken Declaration, has a working group on the simplification of instruments and procedures. Members of this group have already alerted the Convention to the need to redouble efforts to recast and formally consolidate Community legislation and to improve legislative drafting in order to produce clear texts more consistent with existing legislation.
See:
•Clarity of the Treaties (simplification of the Treaties)
•Consolidation of legislation - formal/official
•Consolidation of legislation - informal/declaratory
•Recasting of legislation
•Subsidiarity
•Transparency (access to documents)
This concept has grown in importance since the White Paper on the Completion of the Single Market and was explicitly put forward by the Edinburgh European Council in 1992. Over the past decade a concentrated effort has been made to establish a market guaranteeing the four freedoms, but this has meant a wealth of European legislation. Simplifying this mass of law has now become a priority in order to ensure that Community action is transparent and effective. A pilot programme (Simplification of Legislation for the Internal Market - SLIM) covering four specific areas was launched in May 1996 and will be extended to other areas.
A declaration on the quality of the drafting of Community legislation is attached to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference (1997). It recommends that the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission lay down guidelines for improving the form of legislation.
On 5 June 2002, the Commission published the action plan "Better lawmaking" and undertook to "legislate less but better". The Council of Ministers is currently setting up a new working group to implement this plan. In parallel, the European Convention on institutional reform, set up following the Laeken Declaration, has a working group on the simplification of instruments and procedures. Members of this group have already alerted the Convention to the need to redouble efforts to recast and formally consolidate Community legislation and to improve legislative drafting in order to produce clear texts more consistent with existing legislation.
See:
•Clarity of the Treaties (simplification of the Treaties)
•Consolidation of legislation - formal/official
•Consolidation of legislation - informal/declaratory
•Recasting of legislation
•Subsidiarity
•Transparency (access to documents)
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