Reforma regulacji > english > Regulatory reform in...

The Lisbon Strategy, currently the most important programme of socio-economic reform in the EU, recognised the high quality of the regulatory environment as a key element leading to the enhanced competitiveness of the EU economy.

There is widespread view that the simplification and improvement of Community law will facilitate its implementation by the Member States and reduce the costs borne by both entrepreneurs and administration.

The Better Regulation initiative, aiming at improving the legal environment through a review or elimination of unnecessary regulations, simplification of procedures, regulatory impact assessment and the reduction of administrative burdens, serves to implement this policy.

Better Regulation also means a change in the law-making process so as all institutions involved follow the same rules and produce transparent and understandable legal acts. Moreover it aims to promote the principle of subsidiarity and proportionality, pursuant to which the EU should only take actions when necessary and the related level of administrative burdens should be proportional to the objective intended.

Thus all Community institutions play an important role in the implementation of this initiative.

This initiative is founded on the action plan implemented by the European Commission in June 2002 as a follow-up of the White Paper on European Governance. It is a general action plan which envisages the development of a new concerted strategy at different levels of the legislative process.

When adopting the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-making in December 2003, the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission assumed the obligation to better coordinate the legislative process by a co-decision procedure. They agreed that in exercising their respective powers they would apply the principles of clarity and consistency of texts, as well as transparency of the legislative process.