The UK is spearheading the drive for better EU regulation.

The better regulation agenda is key to making Europe more competitive and more relevant to its citizens.

It is not about de-regulation: EU regulation can benefit UK business and consumers. Rather, it is about examining where the EU can add value and ensuring it does not inhibit enterprise or damage competitiveness.

Good EU legislation has demolished barriers across Europe and raised social and environmental standards. But bad legislation – unnecessary or over-burdensome rules – stifles European business and undermines the Union’s reputation among our citizens. Improving the quality of legislation is key to creating an effective and relevant European Union.

For example, higher environmental standards have helped deliver cleaner air (eg since 1990, sulphur dioxide emissions have fallen by 75 per cent) and cleaner water (water pollution fell by 65 per cent in the 5 years to 2001).

But we need to tackle the legislation that drives down competitiveness, penalises business and enterprise and distances Europe from people’s real concerns.

Our priorities include:

• impact assessment - impacts of EU proposals must be properly assessed, especially impacts on competitiveness
• simplification - involves both the withdrawal of pending legislative proposals and a commitment to repeal, codify or recast over 1400 existing pieces of legislation
• reducing the administrative burdens of EU regulations.

We also want better consultation, greater use of alternatives to regulation and a risk-based approach to the inspection and enforcement of regulation.

There is strong political support for a vigorous reform programme from the Commission: the lead Commissioner, Günter Verheugen, has pledged to make cutting red tape his “personal trademark” and to slay the image of the European “bureaucratic monster”. Better Regulation is at the heart of Commission reform plans. This is a clear signal that Brussels is listening to the concerns of citizens and businesses.

And we’ve secured the support of the five other member states holding the EU Presidency in 2004-2006 who all signed up to the “Six Presidency Initiative on Advancing Regulatory Reform in Europe” in December 2004.

The Commission proposes to reduce the administrative burden of regulation by ensuring that legal definitions and requirements are consistent in the legislation affecting a particular sector, reducing the legal costs associated with compliance.

It has also initiated the withdrawal of one-third (68 pieces of legislation) of all pending proposals and put forward over 100 proposals to simplify existing EU legislation, affecting more that 1400 related legal acts.

It has created new guidelines for impact assessment with re-enforced emphasis on competitiveness testing.

It has drawn up roadmaps setting out intentions for consultation and impact assessment for all new proposals.

See the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's Better Regulation website for details of how the UK is meeting the challenge of regulatory reform both domestically and in Europe.