EU: The European Commission has announced it will scrap more than one-third of pending legislation as the first step in a drive against excessive bureaucracy in the EU.
Enterprise Commissioner Günter Verheugen told MEPs yesterday the plan aimed to "counter the idea that the EU is a bureaucratic monster with a mania for regulation".
Irish MEPs welcomed the announcement, saying it would streamline the way the EU did its business.
In what Mr Verheugen called a "small initial step towards better regulation in Europe," 68 of the 183 proposals adopted by the Commission before 2004 are to be withdrawn, and another five reviewed.
"We want to strengthen the public's confidence in European integration and liberate forces for growth in the economy that are hampered by too much or excessively complicated regulation," Mr Verheugen, who is also the Commission vice-president, said.
Proposals are being struck out because they are anti-competitive, outdated or simply stuck in the legislative process, he explained. Among the matters affected are proposals for labelling alcohol, weekend driving bans for trucks, rules for the competence of airline cabin crews and restrictions on the exposure of workers to sunshine.
As a second step, the commission plans to review existing laws, which run to over 20,000 acts, to see if these can be simplified or updated.
Finally, future legislation will be more stringently examined before introduction, as well as being subject to a cost assessment. Regulations on the car industry, waste management and construction are likely to be the first to be examined, Mr Verheugen said.
MEPs generally welcomed the plan while expressing concern that it should not lead to any diminution of the parliament's powers.
Fianna Fáil MEP Brian Crowley said the EU was often seen as "interfering, overburdensome, overarching and uncaring" about people's everyday concerns. "Every country codifies and consolidates its legislation on an ongoing basis, and the EU should do the same."
"The philosophy is right," said Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell. "We should only regulate where we need to regulate. However, a balance has to be struck and we shouldn't get rid of regulations that uphold standards in many areas of business."
EU parliament president Josep Borrell questioned whether the Commission could withdraw legislation where member states had already adopted a common position.