BRTF Consults Small Firms On EU Regulations

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

13 October 2003

The Better Regulation Task Force, an independent body that advises the UK government on best practice in business regulation has launched a consultation with small businesses asking them to identify specific European regulations that would benefit from simplification.

"Our role is to examine issues where regulation can be made to work more effectively. And with European legislation accounting for around 40% of significant new regulatory proposals - much higher in some sectors - this must be a hot topic" said David Arculus, chairman of the BRTF. "We have worked on the UK end of EU regulation, how it is negotiated and transposed, and have made recommendations on how it can be improved. But now, for the first time we are going to do some work on the European end of the problem," added Mr Arculus.

He explained: "In February 2003 the European Commission launched a new programme for simplifying EU legislation, as part of its Better Regulation initiative. The Commission described it as the beginning of ‘a long-term process of gradual modernisation and simplification of existing legislation and policies – not to deregulate or cut back the acquis (the body of EU law), but to replace past policy approaches with better-adapted and proportionate regulatory instruments.’"

"The Task Force will undertake a review of an area of European legislation that would support and feed into this simplification programme. We would like to identify an area of existing European legislation, where the regulations have built up in an inconsistent, confusing or burdensome manner. Our review will focus on the actual European Directives or Regulations and the problems that are being experienced with them. We are looking for the burning issues and proposals that have been put to us so far include data protection or waste legislation," said the BRTF chairman.

"We are calling upon stakeholders to suggest specific regulations or Directives that they want to see reviewed, and the problems associated with them. We are keen to work on issues with wide relevance."

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