Links is tegen betere regelgeving

Anneleen Van Bossuyt, a Belgian deputy from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament, admitted that Better Regulation had turned into a hot political potato. An own-initiative report she drafted on the topic was only narrowly adopted on 12 April, reflecting deep divisions in Parliament, she said. “It didn’t go as well as I had expected,” she told the CEFIC event. “I thought Better Regulation was something of common sense but this is apparently lacking in the European Parliament,” she added saying the legislature was divided along clear political lines when the report was submitted to a vote in plenary. “It was really left against right,” she said. “Contrary to what many think, Better Regulation is not synonymous with removing all regulation,” she claimed, accusing left-wing parties of polarising the debate. Paquet came out to defend the Commission’s Better Regulation initiative, claiming it was not “just another layer of bureaucracy to kick the can down the road”, but a genuine attempt at improving policy-making and looking at complex evidence. He also warned industry representatives about the potential costs of Better Regulation, saying legislative review processes “require quite an investment” and additional studies by outside consultants, which do not come cheap. “I totally agree that within Europe we’re doing too much studies,” Van Bossuyt concurred.