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European Commission seeks CoR's view on reduction of administrative burdens for business
15.02.2008, 17:10
Committee of the Regions (CoR) President Luc Van den Brande has welcomed the
European Commission's decision to ask the CoR to provide feedback on its new
progress report on the reduction of administrative burdens on businesses in the
EU.
"This a crucial area for the regional and local authorities, which have a distinct partnership role to play in helping the European Union and Member States to respond more effectively to the challenges faced by businesses, and SMEs in particular," he said.
The President, who was rapporteur for the CoR opinion on the better lawmaking package, adopted in October last year, stressed that priority should be given to simplifying the Community rule-book, strengthening consultation and impact evaluation methods, and applying the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
He noted that the updated protocol on subsidiarity and proportionality, which
forms part of the new Treaty of Lisbon, clearly states that draft legislative
acts must take account of the need for financial or administrative burdens,
falling upon economic operators, regional or local authorities, the public,
Member States and the EU, to be minimised and commensurate with the objective to
be achieved.
The President also
reiterated that the Committee is ready to make its wider expertise available to
the Commission, not least through the CoR subsidiarity
monitoring network
. "We have to continue to use the CoR
subsidiarity network to assess the impact of proposed legislation on local and
regional authorities, to determine the financial and staffing costs involved and
extra administrative burdens. We will organise a subsidiarity forum and report
on the implementation of the subsidiarity principle. I also believe that, on
this front, we must strengthen our ties with the national parliaments," he
added.
The Commission report, presented as a working document,
follows the launch of an ambitious action programme in January 2007, aimed at
reducing administrative burdens on businesses in the EU by 25% in 2012. The
European Council has invited Member States to "set national targets of
comparable ambition".
The paper notes that the scope and depth of the programme is "unprecedented at EU level". More than 40 pieces of legislation in 13 priority areas - believed to account for over 80% of administrative burdens of EU origin - are under review. The aim is to measure costs imposed by information obligations on business and remove unnecessary requirements. This will improve the efficiency of legislation without jeopardizing its purpose.
The document highlights the Commission's decision to set up a High Level
Expert Group on the Reduction of Administrative Burdens, chaired by Edmund
Stoiber, Former Minister-President of Bavaria.
Mr Van den Brande said it was
a matter of concern to some that the CoR was not directly represented on the
high level group. During last week's plenary session of the CoR, Isidoro
Gottardo, leader of the European People's Party group, raised the issue with
José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, during an exchange on
the roles of the CoR and associations of regional and local authorities.
The Committee of the Regions
Around two-thirds of EU legislation is implemented
by local and regional authorities in Member States. The Committee of the Regions
is a consultative body, which was created in 1994 to give representatives of
local government a say over the content of these laws. The CoR organises five
plenary sessions a year, where its 344 members vote on reports, known as
opinions, issued in response to proposed legislation. The European Commission,
which initiates EU laws, and the Council of Ministers, which determines the
final content of the legislation (usually in tandem with the European
Parliament), are obliged to consult the CoR on a wide range of policy areas
including the environment, employment and transport.