Strategy for the simplification of the regulatory environment, implementing the Lisbon strategy

 The committee adopted the own-initiative report drawn up by its chair, Giuseppe GARGANI (EPP-ED, IT), in response to the Commission's strategy paper on simplifying the regulatory environment. It strongly supported the Commission's proposals, although it warned that the process should be conditional upon full involvement of Parliament in the adoption of legislation, upon wide-ranging consultation of all relevant stakeholders, including NGOs, and upon improving the general transparency of the regulatory process, in particular by opening legislative discussions in the Council to public scrutiny. MEPs also stressed the importance of close collaboration between the Member States and the Commission for the purpose of identifying the legislation which should be simplified.

The report welcomed in particular the intention to reduce unnecessary burden on SMEs and said that one of the aims of simplifying the EU's regulatory environment should be to make legislation simpler and more effective and hence more "user-oriented".

MEPs stressed that the repeal of irrelevant and obsolete acts was a priority requirement and that the Commission should act without delay. They also said that codification and recasting were the primary means of simplifying the acquis communautaire and that these should be used more widely. The report added that the institutions might usefully determine whether a third type of operation might be provided for, alongside codification and recasting, so as to afford the most appropriate means of simplifying Community legal acts. The Commission was urged, in the light of all these recommendations, to submit a proposal without delay with a view to recasting the interinstitutional agreements governing the quality of EU legislation.