The European Commission has set out a plan to make EU laws simpler, clearer and more strictly enforced, including a review of parts of the existing rulebook.
The Commission wants “simplicity by design” built into every new proposal, with clearer information on who must act, how to comply and what happens if rules are broken, it said in a release on Tuesday.
It also stated it will update its “better regulation” framework — the process it uses to prepare new initiatives — with changes intended to improve transparency, stakeholder engagement and efficiency.
The plan, which was presented by the European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity Valdis Dombrovskis, includes what the Commission called a “regulatory deep cleaning”, with an action plan to address inconsistencies, overlaps and overly complex provisions in 12 priority areas.
Focus on gold-plating and enforcement
Another strand targets “gold-plating”, when EU member states add stricter or wider requirements than EU law sets out, the Commission said.
The Commission also declared it will pursue faster and more robust enforcement, including steps to reduce long-running infringement cases — formal disputes with member states over alleged breaches of EU law.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the executive would “tackle gold-plating, speed up enforcement and clean up our current stock of legislation.”
The Commission stated the European Parliament and the Council of the EU — which represents member states — are “essential partners” and called on both to apply the same simplification and better regulation principles during the legislative process.
