Raffaele Baldassarre, on behalf of the PPE Group. – (IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mrs Geringer de Oedenberg’s report highlights a fundamental question for the EU integration process: the need to make simple, clear laws that EU citizens can understand.

I cannot fail to agree with the key objectives identified by the rapporteur, in particular respect for the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, the importance accorded to the impact assessments and to reducing administrative burdens.

With regard to the impact assessments, I am keen to stress that the Committee on Legal Affairs is actively working so that the European Commission can develop mechanisms to provide guarantees and ensure the independence of the analyses carried out. This is a fundamental question: ensuring higher standards for the impartiality of the assessments would give the EU’s legislative proposals greater credibility, and would simplify the process for their adoption.

Furthermore, I consider it vital to work towards a clear reduction of the administrative burdens arising from European Union legislation. The European Commission would like to reduce these burdens by 25% by 2012, which would entail an increase in the level of EU GDP of 1.4%, equivalent to EUR 150 billion.

A substantial part of EU administrative burdens stems, in fact, from the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of administrative procedures implemented at national level. To give an example: 72 EU legislative acts have imposed 486 information obligations, which have led to the adoption in the Member States of more than 10 000 implementing acts.

While on the one hand, increased monitoring is required during the transposition of Union law, on the other, greater collaboration by the Council and the individual Member States is essential.

To conclude, I think that, leaving aside matters concerning the principle of subsidiarity, closer cooperation with national parliaments can provide a decisive contribution towards making EU laws more effective and ultimately bringing them closer in line with the needs of EU citizens.