Look at better regulation and REFIT from a local and regional angle since local and regional authorities (LRA) are concerned both by the design and application of EU law; LRAs vested with legislative competences might also be responsible for the transposition of a wide range of legislative instruments
Identify, assess and report some examples of burdensome legislation or unnecessary red tape which negatively affects local and regional authorities
Propose a perspective of local authorities and regions regarding possible actions to be taken within the REFIT Programme to reduce administrative and regulatory burden
Reiterate that better regulation should be pursued in the spirit of multilevel governance, through coordinated action by the EU, national institutions and local and regional authorities, and that it should be based on a partnership and participatory approach in the conception and implementation of EU policies
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- believes that all levels of governance must ensure that legislation is appropriate, effective and efficient and does not create unnecessary costs and burdens, while also protecting citizens, consumers, sustainability and the environment;
- welcomes the general approach of involving specifically regional and local actors in consultation related to better regulation;
- while supporting the aim of cutting red tape and removing unnecessary regulatory burdens, stresses that REFIT must not be taken as a pretext for lowering the level of ambition, in particular in fields such as the environment, food safety, health and consumer rights;
- considers it to be very important to fully take the actual needs of actors in the regional and local business environment into account in the ongoing working process on better regulation for SMEs;
- proposes a specific mechanism to use technical assistance funding to establish programme related legal teams to which all applicants would have free access and that can provide robust and consistent advice based on adopted, uniform interpretation of legal regulations as advised by the European Commission, and based on existing practice regarding EU funding regulations so as to remove much of the uncertainty and liability currently placed on the final beneficiary;
- recognises that language and its use can be either a barrier or an invitation to participation; easily accessible and comprehensible language is a key component of legislative and regulatory change;
- suggests several steps that the Commission can take to simplify procedures and facilitate the realisation of policy objectives in areas such as cohesion policy, environment law, agriculture, public procurement, etc.