Simplification of legislation

The glossary is being updated given the recent signing of the Treaty of Lisbon.

Simplifying legislation means weeding out the superfluous by rigorously applying the principles of necessity and proportionality. The exercise mainly involves the recasting and formal or informal consolidation of legislation.

This concept has grown in importance in relation to the internal market since the White Paper on the Completion of the Single Market. It was highlighted by the Edinburgh European Council in 1992. Over the past decade a concentrated effort has been made to establish a market giving priority to the four freedoms, but this has meant a wealth of European legislation, simplification of which has now become a priority in order to ensure that Community action is transparent and effective. The pilot programme (Simplification of Legislation for the Internal Market — SLIM) covering four specific areas was launched in May 1996 and has been reinforced by a multiannual programme on the simplification and updating of Community legislation adopted by the European Commission in February 2003.

In response to the declaration on the quality of the drafting of Community legislation appended to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference (1997), an interinstitutional agreement defining the guidelines for improving the quality of the drafting of legislation was adopted in December 1998.

A new interinstitutional agreement which goes beyond drafting quality alone and is entitled "Better Lawmaking" was adopted in December 2003.

See:

• Clarity of the Treaties (simplification of the Treaties)
• Community legal instruments
• Consolidation of legislation - formal/official
• Consolidation of legislation - informal/declaratory
• Proportionality
• Recasting of legislation
• Subsidiarity
• Transparency (access to documents)