Better Regulation: kick-off meeting on Interinstitutional Agreement
Negotiations on proposals to revise the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Regulation kicked off on Thursday with a meeting in the European Parliament between EP President Martin Schulz, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Latvia’s Prime Minister, Laimdota Straujuma, representing the current Council Presidency and Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel for the incoming Council Presidency.
Following the meeting, President Schulz stated:
"The negotiations on the interinstitutional agreement can have a far-reaching impact on the way the EU institutions function and cooperate. This is about the democratic legitimacy of the decision-making process, about the way their decisions are prepared, and about the involvement of the public and stakeholders. That is why we decided to start negotiations today at the highest level with the presidencies of the three institutions concerned.
An important objective of this exercise is to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens, in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises. For the European Parliament, it is however essential that we do not compromise on standards. Better Regulation should not mean deregulation and should not result in weaker social, environmental, health or safety standards.
The role and nature of impact assessments are likely to be a central issue in the negotiations. Parliament believes that impact assessments can be an important tool in reaching well-informed decisions, but at the same time it wishes to ensure that impact assessments are not used in such a way as to hinder or even unduly replace democratic and political decision-making.
This negotiation is an opportunity to raise the quality of our legislative work on issues ranging from the need to jointly agree on priorities and programming to the use of delegated and implementing acts, from a sharper focus on implementation to clear communication on which rules come from Europe and which have been added by the Member States themselves. This is an opportunity which we must not waste."
Note to editors
The European Commission adopted its Better Regulation Agenda on 19 May. This included, inter alia, a proposal for a revision of the current Interinstitutional Agreement between Parliament, the Commission and the Council, which dates from 2003, before the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty.
Parliament's starting mandate for the negotiations has been given by its Conference of Presidents, which also backed President Schulz's proposal that in the negotiations with the other institutions he be represented by ALDE group leader Guy Verhofstadt.
Contacts:
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Giacomo FASSINA
Cabinet of EP President Martin SchulzContact data: -
Delphine COLARD
Press Service