Activities of Luisa REGIMENTI related to 2021/2166(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Better regulation: joining forces to make better laws (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on Better regulation: Joining forces to make better laws
Amendments (50)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 6 a (new)
Citation 6 a (new)
— having regard to the Commission Communication entitled ‘Updating the 2020 New Industrial Strategy: Building a stronger Single Market for Europe’s recovery’ (COM/2021/350 final),
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 6 b (new)
Citation 6 b (new)
— having regard to the European Parliament report entitled ‘A New Industrial Strategy for Europe’ (2020/2076(INI)),
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7
Citation 7
— having regard to the better regulation toolbox, which complements the Better regulation guidelines, both from November 2021,
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
— having regard to the latest EP resolution “Regulatory Fitness, subsidiarity and proportionality- report on Better Law Making 2017, 2018 and 2019, adopted 24.6.20211a, _________________ 1a P9_TA (2021) 0316.
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 11 a (new)
Citation 11 a (new)
— having regard to its report ‘on a new strategy for European SMEs’(2020/2131(INI))
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 12
Citation 12
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 12 a (new)
Citation 12 a (new)
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas better law-making is a common goal for all EU Institutions, and should be achieved by increasing transparency, accountability and cooperation between the institutions and Member States, citizens and stakeholders, ensuring full respect of all fundamental European values, including democracy, the rule of law and human rights; whereas legislation should be fit for purpose, balanced, clear, transparent and comprehensive in order to benefit citizens and stakeholders;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
A a. whereas European union and national legislation should always be fit for purpose, proportionate, clear and comprehensive, in order to benefit the relevant addressees
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
A b. whereas better regulation tools should be applied in an ever-changing world, where challenges and policy priorities are constantly evolving and the achievement of European objectives and targets across sectors is increasingly urgent; whereas, therefore, it will be increasingly important toback up regulatory proposals with evidence based on the most appropriate assessments;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas high quality regulation serves the public interest as directly conditions the competitiveness of the European Union, territories and businesses, as well as the degree of democracy and participation of the various legal systems, including the national and regional ones; whereas better law-making primarily means guaranteeing citizens the principle of legal certainty;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
B b. whereas there is a need for regulatory review and simplification to remove obstacles to the implementation of legislation, including across borders, and to make laws more effective, transparent and comprehensive to the end user, be it citizen or business;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B c (new)
Recital B c (new)
B c. whereas the better regulation principles and tools should remain policy- neutral to guarantee an objective problem definition and real alternative policy options to be considered by the European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas better law-making must aim to serve the EU’s political ambitions, especially its long-term objectives, such as generating economy and growth, boosting investment and job creation, taking care of a more competitive and democratic Europe and fighting terrorism, while aiming social progress and the binding objective of Union climate neutrality by 2050, and the long-term priority objective for 2050 that citizens live well, within the limits of our planet; whereas a sustainability should be at the heart ofperspective should also be considered for an high quality law- making, placing social, environmental and economic considerations on an equal footing;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas well carried out ex ante and ex post impact assessments and, public consultations and the "evaluate first principle" are essential tools for well- informed, better, efficient, accountable and transparent law-making;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas the ‘Have Your Say’ web portal aims to boost involvement in EU policy-making; whereas the European Court of Auditors published a special report in 20192 with a set of recommendations to even improve this portal, especially the use ando make it more user- friendly, including with regard to the availability of translations; _________________ 2 European Court of Auditors special report no 14/2019: ‘‘Have your say!’: Commission’s public consultations engage citizens, but fall short of outreach activities’.
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas the Regulatory Scrutiny Board assesses the quality of impact assessments as well as of fitness checks and major evaluations to support politicalhigh- quality decision-making;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
F a. whereas publicly available European Union websites for funding and tender opportunities within the framework of the EU programs are published in English Language first; whereas the translation of those websites can take several months; whereas the availability of those websites in all official languages of the EU is crucial for fair competition;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
F a. whereas the Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB) Plays an important role in improving European legislation and it assessed that around 1/3 of impact assessments in 20211a have been negative in their first assessment; _________________ 1a https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/docume nts-register/
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the aim of the regulatory fitness and performance (REFIT) programme is to simplify and reduce regulatory burden of EU laws and reduce unnecessary administrative burdens with a view to improve regulatory complianceand unnecessary regulatory costs, while achieving the underlying policy objectives;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas in 2021 the Commission introduced the ‘one in, one out’ approach with the intention of offsetting new burdens resulting from the Commission’s legislative proposals by removing already existing burdens in the same policy area;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
H a. whereas the ‘one-in, one-out’ principle strengthens the REFIT programme, by extending the programme beyond the burdens from individual pieces of existing legislation to include also burdens from new legislation as well as managing the accumulative burden in each policy area; whereas, at the same time, the ‘one in, one out’ principle needs a clarification concerning its application in practice, as this should always benefit to the interests of businesses, workers, citizens and consumers;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H b (new)
Recital H b (new)
H b. whereas achieving the benefits of simplification efforts at European level also depends on the maintenance of the relevant provisions by the co-legislators and on the choices made by the Member States when transposing them into national law, and a greater effort of coordination and consultation with them and also with the local and regional authorities is therefore required;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the Commission’s commitment to making better use of strategic foresight, mainstreaming the Sustainable Development Goals in all its legislative proposals, in line with the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, to paying greater attention to gender equality and equality for all, and to ensuring that the ‘do no significant harm’ and precautionary principles are applied across all policy areas; calls forsince it plays a key role in helping to future-proof EU policy- making by ensuring that short-term initiatives are grounded in a longer-term perspective; acknowledges that ‘foresight elements’ are fully integrated into the Commission to clearly define the ‘do no significant harm’ principle in order to ensure its consist’s better regulation agenda, and calls for its integration in impact assessments applicnd evaluations; welcomnotes, the proposal that sustainability and digitalisation should be better taken into account in law-making; calls on the Commission to implement a ‘sustainabiloo, that ‘strategic foresight’ will support the REFIT programme, which identifies opportunities to reduce regulatory burdens and ensure that existing EU laws remain ‘fity first’ approachor the future’;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Highlights that there are 1.28 million1c small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EU and therefore the Commission should not just perform the SME test more systematically, but shall foresee a mandatory SME test to be performed for all legislative proposals; _________________ 1c https://www.statista.com/statistics/878412/ number-of-smes-in-europe-by-size/
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. welcomes the Commissions intentions to improve the analysis and reporting of proposals’ impacts, for example on competitiveness and SMEs, territoriality, sustainability,equality, subsidiarity and proportionality;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. welcomes that in line with the 2030 Digital Compass Communication, better regulation will promote the ‘digital by default’ principle in forthcoming EU legislationas an important tool to support digital transformation;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. welcomes the intention of the Commission to create an interinstitutional database – the so-called Joint Legislative Portal - whose functioning should make sure to provide themost intuitive layout and user-friendly experience possible in order to avoid information overload;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes the Commission’s commitment to more actively publicising consultations in order to reach more citizens, and stakeholders and encourages to do so through local and regional authorities and the Committee of the Regions;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes the Commission’s commitment to more actively publicising consultations in order to reach more citizens, stakeholders, in particular SMEs, and local and regional authorities;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Calls for all European Union websites on funding and tender opportunities to be translated into all official languages of the EU immediately, as the initial exclusive availability in English language putsnon-English speaking member states at disadvantage;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls for impact assessments to be performed on all acts, without exception;legislative proposals, deeply regrets that this was not the case for several politically sensitive proposals in the past; recalls that on several occasions Parliament has carried out its own impact assessments in replacement of the Commission’s, mainly because of a lack of a necessary impact assessment; notes that this could be avoided by a proper coverage from the Commissions site before their publication of a legislative proposal; nevertheless, recalls that impact assessments help to inform but do not replace political decision-making;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Recalls that the application of the ‘Think Small First’ principle enshrined in the Small Business Act is an essential element for the proportionality test, prior to any legislative proposal and should aim at ensuring that SMEs’ voices are heard and that their interests are taken on board as early as possible, in order to create a favourable business environment for the development of SMEs, which are the backbone of our European economy;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Underlines that if an impact assessment has not been performed than the Commission should publish the staff working document at the same time as the legislative proposal;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Encourages greater account of feedback resulting from evaluations and assessments should be taken, and highlights the positive and widely recognised role of the Regulatory Scrutiny Committee in increasing the quality of legislative proposals; therefore, calls to make better use of its expertise and experience within the Commission;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. ESupports the Commission’s commitment to policy reviews and encourages the Commission to make greater use of ex post assessments to evaluate the effectiveness and benefits of legislation which in turn can help inform future policy developmentand improve regulation approaches; stresses the importance of the ‘evaluate first’ principle for ensuring that lessons learnt from the past informluence future policy cycle action; is seriously concerned about the increasing trend of evaluations and impact assessments being carried out in parallel, although evaluation results should feed into any revision of legislation;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Stresses that ex post evaluations are also an important tool to assess the impact of legislation on citizens and businesses, whereby special attention should be given as to the impact on SMEs;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Takes note of the use of instruments such as the regulatory fitness and performance programme (REFIT) and the ‘Fit for Future’ Platform to identify opportunities for simplification and reducing unnecessary costs before the Commission proposes a revision, while ensuring the highest standards of protection and enhancing compliance with EU law; recalls that the ‘Fit for Future’ platform’s role is also to assess whether specific Union legislation and its objectives remain future-proof proportionate and adapted to new challenges;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Outlines that the Commission should better align and combine its better regulation and strategic foresight activates in order to better integrate both processes;
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 c (new)
Paragraph 10 c (new)
10 c. Points out that the quality of the replies to parliaments questions for oral answer, such as for example O- 000003/2020 and O-000028/2021 concerning the implementation of the better Regulation, are very poor, calls therefore for an immediate and structural significant improvement of the Commissions answer to parliamentary questions;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Takes note of the involvement of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board in impact assessments, fitness checks, and major evaluations of current legislation; notemphasises, however, that the independence of the board could be further improved; notes, that the transparency of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board on meetings with stakeholders, reviews, recommendations and opinions should be significantly improved; underlines that the work of the Board should not ultimately affect the Commission’s capacity to propose legislation or unduly delay the adoption of legislative proposals; considers that all the Board’s opinions should always be made public immediately after adoption without any exception;
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Takes note of the ‘one in, one out’ approachprinciple, which is based on stake holder involvement, and by which the Commission aims to offset newly introduced burdens especially for micro- enterprises and SMEs by relieving citizens and businesses of equivalent burdens at EU level in the same policy area; regrets the unilateral introduction of this approach by the Commission, without a prior impact assessment or consultation; underlines that the implementation of this approach should not affect political imperatives or the objectives of better regulation, and emphasises that it should not lead to mechanical or mathematical decisions to repeal legislation, lower its standard or resuls and that int a chilling effect on legislationim should be to modernise and reform EU legislation to face new challenges; recalls that the need for new legislation should not automatically imply that current legislation is no longer needed; calls for this approach to be based on a transparent and evidence-based methodology giving balanced consideration to all sustainability aspects, both in terms of bestresses at the same time that, while additional unnecessary administrative burdens should be avoided when designing, transposing and implementing EU acts, this should nefits and costs, including the costs of non-compliance and inaction; calls on the Commission, in this regard, to make its ‘one in, one out’ calculator public before applying this approachher be translated into deregulation or ‘no regulation’, nor should it prevent Member States’ parliaments from maintaining or taking more ambitious measures in cases where only minimum standards are defined by Union law;
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12 a. Calls on the Commission to introduce a digital single reporting instrument, consolidation reporting requirements arising from the revision of the non-financial reporting directive (NFRD), the taxonomy, but also the reporting requirements from the Fit for 55 package in a single tool, which is designed with specific requirements and ready-made Key Performance Indicators (KPls) and standards, accessible in a modular and digital way for companies and other organisations
Amendment 143 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12 a. Stresses that, in applying the ‘one in, one out’ principle, all compliance costs, both administrative and adjustment costs, should be offset, since they both concur to burden businesses in particular; stresses the need that the principle is applied by the Member States as well as by local and regional authorities during the transposition process concerned; encourages the exchange of best practices on compensatory measures, methodologies and data collected;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12 b. Underlines that systematic review of legislation plays an increasingly important role for achieving better regulation; stresses in this regard the importance of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission engaging in a more structured cooperation in order to assess the application and effectiveness of Union law with a view to its improvement; points out the need for the swift, timely and correct application of Union legislation by the Member States inorder to properly assess the need for further legislation;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12 b. Highlights that the Better Regulation Guidelines and Toolbox need to be improved with regards to the effects of costs added by co-legislators in the course of negotiations and Member States “gold-plating” legislation when transposing it into the national laws since "gold-plating" practices are one of the main sources of administrative burden;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 c (new)
Paragraph 12 c (new)
12 c. Reiterates the specificity of local and regional authorities and the need to tailor consultations; recommends that the Commission consult the Committee of Regions in the development of open consultations and roadmaps for proposals that significantly affect sub-national levels of government;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 d (new)
Paragraph 12 d (new)
12 d. Recalls the importance of the Territorial Impact Assessment for the CoR, including rural impact assessment, urban impact assessment and cross- border impact assessment, for the achievement of the objective of evidence- based policy making;
Amendment 150 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 e (new)
Paragraph 12 e (new)
12 e. Stresses that better law-making objectives need to be regularly reviewed and evaluate dagainst the criteria of the better law-making agenda, including monitoring and reporting; underlines that the objectives need to be well balanced, proportionate and evaluated in terms of their effectiveness; recalls the importance of comparable EU-wide data for the purpose of this evaluation and calls on the Commission to examine whether the use of the better regulationtools have served to achieve objectives such as improved policy outcomes;