COMMUNITY LAW: ENLARGEMENT TRIGGERS DELAYS IN DRIVE TO SLIM DOWN ACQUIS.

The Communication is the second interim report to be published since the Commission launched its "framework for action" in February 2003 (see issues 2750 and 2815). The third and final phase of the campaign will run until December 2004. The drive is part of a broader action plan to regulate less but better which the Commission adopted in June 2002 (see issue 2690). The EU executive says it got very little response from the other EU institutions and Member States to a consultation launched in February 2003, although it welcomes the March 2004 European Council's commitment to set priorities in this field by the end of 2004. It adds that the Inter-Institutional Regulation on better law-making which entered into force in December 2003 should help the process.

Simplification.

The Commission has integrated several different approaches or tools into its campaign. Firstly, the policy sectors have to be screened to see which ones need to be "simplified" i.e. without the substance of them being changed. By the end of March 2004, it had tabled 30 simplification initiatives and 20 of these were awaiting approval by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers. Taking its cue from the European Council, the Commission has focused heavily on initiatives that cut red tape for the private sector.

Enlargement slows progress.

There are about 14,000 EU legal acts in force which run to some 100,000 pages of the Official Journal. The Commission had wanted to slim this down by 30-35,000 pages by the end of 2005 but admits that this goal is unlikely to be achieved. This is because the acquis was not translated in full into all the new languages in time for EU enlargement on May 1, 2004. That has meant that texts the Commission wants to codify are only now becoming available in the new languages, which has considerably slowed down the overall process.

Codification involves tidying up legislation, such as removing irrelevant recitals, but without amending the...