Brussels: 20 June 2008

The European Commission (EC) have published the presentations and supporting materials from the Conference titled – Cutting Red Tape for Europe. The Conference took place in the European Parliament on Friday, 20 June 2008 in Brussels. The Conference program consists of a number of plenary sessions prior to going into breaking out sessions, three of which were vertical in nature and one horizontal:

• Environment and Transport
• Company Law
• Food safety & pharmaceuticals
• Burden Reduction

The announcement states:

“On 20 June 2008, the European Commission hosted a Conference in Brussels to present the goals of the Action Programme and to discuss possibilities for administrative burden reduction with European Stakeholders. The Brussels conference followed a series of national events organised in the Member States and offered opportunity for stakeholder involvement in the European Action Programme.

The Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Enterprise and Industry Günter Verheugen in his address to the Conference stated:

“Better lawmaking and cutting red tap are topical issues as they represent two challenges of vital importance for the future of Europe.

• Firstly we have the dilemma that citizens and businesses want a strong European legal framework offering greater security and good framework conditions. At the same time, everything coming from Brussels is automatically suspected of being yet more red tape. This is a contradiction which cannot be allowed to persist in the long term. We therefore have to become better, and restore trust in our lawmaking.
• Secondly, Europe is faced with rapidly developing international competition. Every wasted opportunity sets us back and places jobs in jeopardy. We must therefore improve the competitiveness of our businesses, without losing our European values.”

The Conference considered and debated a range of issues a number of which were pertinent to the European Information and Knowledge economy and the role of good regulation. For example:

• Harmonisation of public sector databases to eliminate variance as one crosses borders – road transport provided a good example.
• The role of Electronic one-stop portals
• The use data already held in public registers - pre-filled, intelligent forms

One of the questions posed included:

"What happens in an information society when:

• “red tape” is the most efficient form of regulation?
• “red tape” produces more social benefits than costs?
• “red tape” is efficient, but the underlying policy is not justified?"