| Author (Corporate) | European Commission |
|---|---|
| Series Title | COM |
| Series Details | (2014) 368 final (18.06.14) |
| Publication Date | 18/06/2014 |
| Content Type | Policy-making, Report |
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European Union regulation plays a key role underpinning growth and jobs. Businesses need the EU to ensure a level playing field and facilitate competitiveness. The public looks to the European level to protect their interests, whether in regard to health and safety, the quality of the environment, the right to privacy and so on. One common rule to apply in all Member States can be much simpler and more efficient than a complex web of varying rules on the same subject-matter at national and regional level. The challenge is to keep this legislation simple - not to go beyond what is strictly necessary to achieve policy goals and to avoid overlapping layers of regulation. The European Commission is meeting this challenge through its Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT) which commits to a simple, clear and predictable regulatory framework for business workers and citizens. This programme aims to cut red tape, remove regulatory burdens, simplify and improve the design and quality of legislation so that the policy objectives are achieved and the benefits of EU legislation are enjoyed at lowest cost and with a minimum of administrative burden, in full respect of the Treaties, particularly subsidiarity and proportionality. Under REFIT, the Commission is screening the entire stock of EU legislation on an ongoing and systematic basis to identify burdens, inconsistencies and ineffective measures and identified corrective actions. In the October 2013 Communication on REFIT, the Commission set out an ambitious agenda. It identified areas where initiatives foreseen would not be taken forward. It withdrew a number of proposals that had been long blocked in the legislature and repealed a number of pieces of legislation. In total, over 100 actions were identified, half of which were new proposals aimed to simplify and reduce regulatory burden in existing legislation. The other actions are Fitness Checks and evaluations designed to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of EU regulation and prepare future burden reduction initiatives. The Commission has delivered on these commitments. This Communication reports on the state of play in implementing the REFIT programme and identifies new actions. It indicates how the Commission is further strengthening its horizontal regulatory tools - impact assessment, evaluation and stakeholder consultations. It also looks at how EU institutions, Member States and stakeholders in business and civil society are playing their part in exercising this shared responsibility for Regulatory Fitness. REFIT actions - withdrawals, amendments and repeals - reinforce the broader benefits that regulating at EU level can bring by replacing 28 different national measures by one EU measure, leading to a simpler regulatory environment for businesses and citizens across Europe. The Communication is accompanied by a detailed scoreboard setting out the state of play in the implementation of each individual REFIT initiative and an indication of further action. The scope for new action is influenced by the timing of this report. New commitments will carry-over into the next mandate and have been considered carefully in this context. |
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| Source Link | http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2014:368:FIN |
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| Subject Categories | Politics and International Relations |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
