Commenting on the ‘better regulation’ proposals published today, Bernadette Ségol, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) said
“I am in favour of efforts to improve legislation, but these proposals will make the legislative procedure longer, costlier and more bureaucratic.”
“I do not think the European Commission will get away with restricting the right of democratically elected politicians to change legislative proposals in the name of ‘better regulation’.”
“I am very sceptical about giving so-called experts a much bigger role in EU legislation. Impact assessments are not simply technical, but make political recommendations based on limited criteria, such as for example cost without considering social benefit.”
“I am pleased that some inappropriate proposals have been dropped as a result of discussions in the run up to the launch of this package.”
Key areas of concern for the ETUC include
- The European Commission asks the European Parliament and Council to carry out an impact assessment if they significantly change Commission proposals. This is a clear attempt to put a brake on the right of elected MEPs and Ministers to take democratic decisions, and to make it more difficult to change Commission proposals.
- Unelected ‘experts’ will be given a major role in EU law-making and a new bureaucratic machine will be created. The Commission proposes a ‘Regulatory Scrutiny Board’, a major increase in impact assessments including ‘inception impact assessments’, independent panels for each institution, more public consultation, a website-based complaints system “Lighten the Load – Have your say” and a ‘REFIT stakeholder platform’.
This makes the legislative procedure longer, costlier and more bureaucratic.
- The Commission is accusing member states of going beyond what is necessary when they implement EU legislation. By doing this, the Commission is turning what are often ‘minimum standards’ into ‘maximum standards’ – which would weaken social progress and infringe the Treaty.
- EU law will not apply equally to all. Proposing a “lighter regime” for SMEs and an “outright exemption for micro-businesses” is discrimination.
New ETUI working paper http://www.etui.org/Publications2/Working-Papers/Mieux-legiferer-une-simplification-bureaucratique-a-visee-politique
