REFIT Platform hands First Vice-President Timmermans first set of opinions on ways to cut the burdens and improve the results of EU legislation

An important step forward in the Commission Better Regulation Agenda was taken yesterday, 28 June, when First Vice-President Timmermans chaired the REFIT Platform and received a first set of 18 opinions agreed by its members. Based on stakeholders’ and members’ input, the recommendations provide suggestions on how to improve the results of EU legislation by reducing unnecessary burdens, eliminating overlapping regulatory requirements and simplifying legislation. The Commission will react to all the Platform’s suggestions and publicly explain how it intends to follow up in the context of its 2017 Work Programme.  The First Vice-President thanked the Platform members for their valuable work so far, saying: “Bridging the gap between the regulated and the regulators is the reason why we created the Platform. I highly welcome this first output. It shows the Platform’s capacity to tap into the experience of those dealing with EU regulations on a daily basis and suggest practical changes that can make a real difference for our small enterprises, our citizens and public administrations without lowering the ambition of our policy goals. It is now for the Commission to make sure that everything that is valuable in the recommendations is taken up and provide clear reasons for any suggestions the Commission may decide not to follow“. The REFIT Platform consists of forty-eight members from a diversity of stakeholders, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and all Member State governments, who come together to contribute to making EU legislation and its implementation in Member States more efficient and more effective in achieving its objectives. The Platform, created in 2015, works on the basis of their own input and experience as well as input received from the public via the ‘Lighten the Load’ tool. This new online portal is open for all members of the public to provide their suggestions for reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens they experience in their daily lives. Platform members assess the merits of stakeholder contributions and look at practical ways to follow up on their suggestions, without undermining policy objectives. The Commission will react to all the Platform’s suggestions and systematically and publicly explain how it intends to follow up.