25 October 2013

European Council Conclusions: Regulatory fitness

29. Regulation at Union level is necessary in order to ensure that EU policy goals, including the proper functioning of the Single Market, are attained. This should be achieved with a maximum of transparency and simplicity and a minimum of costs while always taking account of the need for a proper protection of consumers, health, the environment and employees.

30. The European Council welcomes the recent Commission Communication on regulatory fitness (REFIT), which acknowledges work already undertaken in recent years to alleviate the burden of legislation, in particular for SMEs, and proposes ambitious further steps to make the EU regulatory framework lighter. The European Council calls on the Commission to make further substantial proposals in this field.

31. The European Council urges the Commission and the legislator to rapidly implement the REFIT programme, inter alia through simplification of existing EU law, by withdrawing proposals that are no longer needed and by repealing legislation that is out of date.

32. To this end, the European Council underlines the need to monitor progress by means of a comprehensive scoreboard to track progress at the European and national level and facilitate dialogue on regulatory fitness. It welcomes the steps taken by the Member States and the EU aimed at better identification of excessively burdensome regulation, noting in this respect the subsidiarity and proportionality principles. Substantial efforts are required in this respect, both at EU and national levels. The European Council looks forward to agreeing further steps in this direction at its June meeting and will return to the issue annually as part of the European Semester.

Full conclusions

Further Council information

President Schulz said: The European Parliament welcomes the fact that you have placed better lawmaking on today’s agenda. We support initiatives to consolidate and simplify existing laws and thus make them more easily accessible to citizens and to companies. But 10 years after the institutions committed themselves to better lawmaking, we are still adding thousands of pages to the acquis every year. And the Member States complicate these already complex texts still further when they implement them. That is not good enough. We must do better.

We would like to suggest three points for you to think about in your discussions on better lawmaking.

First of all, subsidiarity and European added-value are two sides of the same coin. It is our shared responsibility, the responsibility of MEPs and the relevant ministers in the Council, to adopt laws which provide people with clear added-value. Impact assessments as an integral part of the procedure are an important tool to this end. That also means not meddling in things that are not our business. In other words, respecting the principle of subsidiarity. The EU should act – and should only act – where the national, regional or local levels of government could not achieve a better result. For example, in combating tax evasion and avoidance we can achieve much better results for our citizens when we tackle this problem together at EU level.

Secondly, we must set clear priorities. We need to identify the most important legislative files and work energetically to progress them. Hundreds of legislative procedures are due to be completed by the end of this electoral term. The European Parliament is willing and able to finish this work by May 2014. However, we consider it sensible to highlight a few particularly important projects. Priority must be given to addressing the creation of the banking union and adoption of the financial rules, economic policy governance including the social dimension, data protection, access to credit, and combating youth unemployment.

Thirdly, there must be an end to the stonewalling on some important legislative acts. You are meeting today as a European institution, as the European Council, which determines policy guidelines. However, we have the impression that some projects you have adopted here have been adopted in a different form in the various Councils of Ministers. Your basic decisions on combating tax evasion and tax avoidance and on banking union exemplify the cases in which we feel there are discrepancies between the guidelines you adopted and their implementation in the Council of Ministers. There are a number of legislative items which we have already adopted but are awaiting agreement in the Council.

Full speech to the European Council

President Barroso said: I really believe this is an important agenda for Europe to have simpler, cheaper and lighter regulation, 'common sense' regulation. Let's be honest about this, there are some regulations we need; in the internal market if every country has its own regulations it's a problem, not only for the SMEs but even for big companies. So there is, I think, a point to be made here: we need common regulations at European level but of course these regulations should be lighter, simpler and cheaper.

Very often EU action replaces at least 28 different sets of national regulation with just one set of rules. And in areas like the digital economy, that the European Council discussed yesterday, business wants European action, they want more common rules for the European Union, namely on the trade or services. At the same time, I know many entrepreneurs, especially SMEs, feel they are being caught up in too much red tape. That's why we have to slash this red tape.

Since 2005, I've been pushing for a change of culture in Brussels and also in the national capitals. We have come a long way. 6,000 legal acts repealed. €32 billion already saved. And our regulatory fitness programme – REFIT - is the next phase in the roll-out. So this is our programme that we have already adopted. I thank David Cameron and business representatives for the positive remarks you have made about this important programme. Now we have to consider what else can be done, I want to make very clear here with you: it's great that business, with this initiative, takes a very strong role in these discussions. And at the same time there are other important stakeholders that we have to listen to as well, from those expressing environmental concerns to workers and trade unions. And I think you understand that this is critically important for the success of this programme. This is my political point today. We have to see what is the best way of delivering on better regulation, how can we better get results?

I believe we should not call into question established policy goals at European level. It is not about lowering standards in areas such as the environment, that are so important for many of our Member States, or lowering standards in terms of workers health and safety or consumer protection.

This also should not be seen as an ideological debate between Member States or between the Member States and the European institutions. It should not be a ideological debate about competences. I like to see this as a pragmatic agenda. I think that’s the best way to deliver, to have results.

How can we, in all matters of the European Union, reduce unnecessary regulation? As I quoted the French philosopher Montesquieu recently, "Les lois inutiles affaiblissent les lois nécessaires", I can also repeat here today in English "useless laws weaken the necessary ones". And I think this is the right spirit to achieve positive results.

Speech

David Cameron spoke about the Business Taskforce report and GDP figures at his press conference in Brussels:

"The conclusions which you’ll see coming out of this European Council are once again very strong on deregulation: I think perhaps the strongest we’ve seen over many, many years. They call for a further, substantial set of actions on deregulation. They talk about setting up a proper score card so we can see how much regulation is being cut by, and I think you can see a sea change, really, of thinking here, in terms of what the Commission is going to do and the priority given to identifying and removing excessive regulation. So I think that is a success story; not just for Britain, but a success story for Europe, and I will keep pushing it."

Full speech

Commons Hansard statement

Parliament TV

Speaking at the European Council meeting, Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the initiative of the European Commission and described it as "extremely helpful". Slimming down bureaucracy and eliminating unnecessary provisions can create a situation in which growth becomes easier. The Commission has made an exceptional contribution, declared the Chancellor.

Press release

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