Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-13-Speech-2-061"
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"en.20051213.7.2-061"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we Liberal and Democrats have taken a position on your work programme alongside the conservative Christian Democrats and the Union for Europe of the Nations Group.
It is evident from the way we have opted to structure its content that there are tasks to occupy us next year in all policy areas. We congratulate you on the fundamental direction of the work programme, which is aimed at making Europe more competitive, at consistent pursuit of the Lisbon Agenda and at completing the market as a means towards strengthening Europe’s economy – those are the right lines along which to go if Europe is to be made stronger and fitter for globalisation. This policy will also bring Europe closer to its people by making visible what Europe really means for them as individuals.
I would, however, also like to make some critical comments. This House is where many political initiatives are started, and the scene of many debates, and we would very much like to see you drawing on our debates as a source for initiatives that eventually bear fruit in legislation. What Europe needs is a single work programme for the various institutions, which would make visible the way in which they work together. The fact is that, at the end of the day, it is we who are the people’s representatives; it is we who take note of what the public in the Member States are talking about and of what they want, and so we ask you to take greater account of this.
I also have some critical comments to make about the form of the work programme, which cannot be said to be coherent when it consists of two parts, neither of which has anything to do with the other – an introductory section describing in fine words what Europe is all about, followed by a second part lacking any consistency in either structure or language. A document such as this is comprehensible only to those in the institutions who have to work with it; it is not something with which one can give the public any real idea of what Europe actually intends to do.
In exactly the same way, we demand of you that, for every initiative that you take, you also specify the legal basis for it, making it possible to trace precisely whence Europe derives the competence to do something in this particular area. It is also advisable to minimise the number of proposals you make, for it often makes much more sense to concentrate on a few things and then do them well.
‘Better regulation’ is not just about making proposals, but also about implementing them later on. Above all, it must mean implementing them more simply, more quickly and more directly, with priority given to the effects of legislation, which means that greater attention must be given to the costs resulting from it. If it turns out that a piece of legislation will cost too much, and that the costs will outweigh the benefits, then it should be dispensed with. This applies not only to new initiatives, for those that are already going through the system, along with legislation already in force, must also be evaluated in order to determine whether it really is needed or whether it costs too much.
Working on the principle that less is often more, we have prepared our own proposals, which I ask the Commissioner to draw on, since it is important that the EU should be clear, comprehensible and on a smaller scale if the public are to know what it is all about."@en1
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