Better lawmaking, single market: making rules more effective. Annual report 1997

In its communication 'Legislate less to act better: the facts' the Commission gives an assessment of and the prospects for its activities with regard to: a)subsidiarity/proportionality: the Commission considers the results to be positive. It is determined to give effect to the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality even before the Amsterdam Treaty is ratified. It is currently amending its general guidelines for legislative policy and will ensure in particular that the provisions governing impact assessments are complied with; b) drafting quality: each of the three institutions has adopted measures of its own but they have not yet achieved the desired objectives. Efforts need to be coordinated. The legal services of the three institutions are working together and should be producing draft guidelines; c) simplification: the establishment of the single market has already achieved a spectacular result in terms of simplification. In 1998 the Commission will be presenting proposals under the second phase of SLIM to follow up the recommendations made by the working parties.The Commission supports the conclusions of the report of the Business Environment Simplification Task Force (BEST) which stress the need to persuade all levels of public authorities to place the 'better lawmaking' principles at the heart of their political strategy; d)formal consolidation, recasting, informal consolidation: the Commission intends to continue the progress already made in formal consolidation and has already identified the sectors where a special effort will be required over the period 1998-2000. It would also like to see early agreement between the institutions on recasting, a method which ensures constant clarity of legislation; e) access to information: a permanent structure will be set up, via the Internet and freephone numbers, to conduct a dialogue with the public and businesses to inform them of their rights; the Euro-Info-Centre networks will be reinforced; f) transposal: as a result of its efforts which it intends to continue and despite the difference in performance among the Member States, the average figure for informing the Commission of national implementing measures has risen. It was 94% on 31 December 1997. �