Graham Watson MEP

Liberals and Democrats welcome pruning of EU laws but caution Commission on procedure

Published on Tuesday 27th September 2005

Today in Parliament, the European Commission Vice President, Gunter Verheugen, is due to formally present the Commission list of pending legislative proposals that could be withdrawn or revised. This follows a commitment in March on better regulation to screen obsolete, or ineffective draft laws that have been either stuck without agreement in Council or which provide very little added value for the EU citizen.

Graham Watson MEP, leader of the European Liberal Democrats in the Parliament yesterday welcomed the initiative to "put meat on the bones of earlier commitments to improve EU law-making. Many proposed EU laws bring very little added value to the citizen and have been stuck for a decade or more in an inter-institutional limbo land. It is essential that Parliament, as co-legislator is fully consulted on the measures to be withdrawn or redrafted, particularly since the Commission and Parliament agreed only recently on a Framework Agreement for improved cooperation."

Liz Lynne, ALDE spokesperson on the recent optical radiation directive who argued last parliamentary session that 'natural' radiation was not something that could be regulated from Brussels, is claiming a victory for common sense in that even the Commission now sees the point and is withdrawing reference to natural radiation.

"I am glad that the Commission has listened to the Parliament and I now call on Council to follow suit. There are other sensible directives coming out of the EU, and those are the ones we should be focusing on, not the ones that are either unnecessary at EU level or just plain daft."