EUROCHAMBRES presented 10 better European policy-making priorities for the next five year EU legislative term during a major conference the association hosted today in the European Parliament. The Secretary-General of the Parliament, chairs of two of its key committees, the Deputy-Secretary General of the Commission and the Chair of the Commission’s High Level Group on Administrative Simplification, Edmund Stoiber, heard senior EUROCHAMBRES representatives highlight the importance of an efficient, evidence-based policy-making process to the business community’s economic recovery and growth.
EUROCHAMBRES’ priorities revolve around the need for the European Commission, Parliament, Council and member states to pursue the smart regulation agenda with renewed vigour, focussing on minimising the overall regulatory burden and ensuring an evidence-based approach to policy-making.
“Regulatory reform is sometimes perceived as a business agenda and indeed, companies – especially smaller ones – often suffer directly from regulatory and administrative burdens. However, poor policy making is detrimental to all political objectives – economic, social and environmental – and thus to Europe as a whole. It is in everyone’s interest that policies are prepared on the basis of thorough cost-benefit analysis”, said Richard Weber, President of EUROCHAMBRES.
Alongside requests to apply the “Think Small First” principle rigorously, carry out impact assessments on substantive amendments, publish correlation tables and introduce common commencement dates, EUROCHAMBRES asks to:
• Secure a new commitment from the three EU institutions to minimise the overall regulatory burden, establishing a new target and putting in place a fast-track co-decision procedure for the swift adoption of burden reduction proposals;
• Review the composition and working practices of the Commission’s Impact Assessment Board in order to ensure its independence and transparency and to facilitate its accessibility to the European Parliament and Council;
• Publish all draft impact assessments and consult on their findings to maximise their quality and to facilitate the provision of missing data or the correction of inaccurate data.
Mr Weber added: “The ‘one in, one out’ methodology, as applied in certain member states, should be considered at EU level for the new term, with no new legislation being introduced unless comparatively burdensome existing requirements are withdrawn. In a period of fragile recovery and fierce global competition, the economy simply cannot absorb additional burdens.”