Too much paperwork
How would you cut red tape in the European Union?
The European Commission itself believes that if the "dense undergrowth of rules and regulations in the EU's jungle of legislation" was cut by a quarter it would boost growth in the European economy.
So the (I am not making this up) High Level Group of Independent Stakeholders on Administrative Burdens is asking everyone to put their thinking caps on and come up with new ideas.
The top three winners will have a chance to unveil their proposals in Prague next May.
There's no mention of a prize. So firstly, what is your "best idea for red tape reduction"? And more importantly, what should the winners be given as a prize?
I’m Mark Mardell, the BBC's North America editor. These are my reflections on American politics, some thoughts on being a Brit living in the USA, and who knows what else? My 
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duh. maybe by giving the public the right to vote out any commission that doesn't know when to stop regulating? or is that recommendation not specific enough?
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All EU legislation should include a date on which it lapses unless re-enacted which should be no longer than 19 years. This would automatically time-out obsolete legislation (e.g. CAP, etc.) and refresh the legitimacy of anything re-enacted.
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Though it's not strictly red tape, I think the fact that the EU parliament is in Strasbourg whilst its other major institutions are in Brussels, therefore giving MEPs and civil servants the excuse to go back and forth in the first-class lounge every few weeks (using taxpayers' money), is a travesty.
I'd like my prize for suggesting bringing all the institutions into one location to be a first-class train ticket to Brussels, to see the fruits of my labour when the new parliament building opens there.
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If you want to get there, then you can't start from here, so the only solution...
Get rid of all the idiots who created it in the first place.
Scrap everything they have done and start again.
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A constitution like the American would greatly help
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Is this finally an acceptance that th E.U in is present form is one big cock-up
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Suggestion No. 1:
A new law/directive can only be enacted after ten existing laws/directive have been scrapped.
Suggestion No. 2:
Halve the number of EUrocrats and EU officials.
If, after 4 weeks, no change is noted, then halve the number once again.
(Repeat until satisfaction results).
Suggestion No. 3:
Ignore all EU legislation whenever it conflicts with
a) common sense
b) national interest.
(This works for some countries like France)
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The same assumption could be made of any burocracy, even town councils, red-tape has to be pruned from time to time.
The European Constitution was designed specifically to streamline regulations and remove some of the "veto opportunities" that member states are constantly using to force their local greivances onto the wider agenda. So if you want to cut red tape the easiest way is to bring back the Constitution and enact it, it's already written up and ready to go.
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This will not make any difference at all.
Why are you not talking about the European arrest warrant? I have seen no mention of this at the BBC and find that disturbing. One would have thought the people would be interested in such a story, that you have not seen fit to mention that is bad/none existent reporting on your part.
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In my view, the EU Commission has too much power, and the EU Parliament too little. This lets the bureaucrats devise innumerable procedures and regulations that are well meant but in practice cause delay, confusion and inequity. I would like to see the Commission be strictly subordinate to the
Parliament, able to prescribe only on subjects that the Parliament has explicitly given legislative authority for.
This also applies to a badly needed revision of the Treaty of Lisbon, which I have read line by line. The hand of Brussels bureaucrats is all too apparent in the Treaty of Lisbon, which has embedded in it a large number of things that would properly belong in legislation and/or directives, not in a treaty.
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1. Force everyone to learn Esperanto and print EU documents only in that language. Nobody will understand what they say but that won't be any different from what you have now already.
2. Ban all paper and printed words as they did in the movie Farenheit 454. All instructions and communications would be in pictograms. After all, one picture is worth a thousand words. Cut down all of the forests and ban importation of paper.
3. Take a tip from the solution to the Gordian knot, put all of the papers in one huge pile, apply a flamable fluid liberally, and light a match to it. From then on out, all documents would be electronically recorded.
Just get rid of the EU altogether. Nah, that can't happen. Where would all those out of work Eurocrats go? And who would pay for their golden parachutes if the rich countries no long subsidized the poor ones? What would become of the poor Bulgarian ex fifth deputy assistant minister for the development and selection of alternate crops to wheat during the second growing season in odd numbered years?
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I seem to recall that this has been tried before - could I apply for a job in the new directorate-general that will be established to oversee the reduction of red tape?
Or has Sir Humphrey already been shortlisted?
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Further to#7...how about the UK insisting that the other 26 countries fully comply with any new directives/regulations BEFORE we even consider them?
'Cat amongst the pigeons' comes to mind!
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Sunset clause on all legislation.
That way bored MPs, MEPs, Commissioners, and civil servants can spend their time reviewing exisiting legislation to see if it's necessary rather than finding new creative pieces to pass just to justify their existance.
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Firstly deal with MEPs expenses
Expense Allowance Abuse by MEPs
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Sorry badly typed
Expense Allowance Abuse by MEPs
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Lynseygroom (15): The key problem with EU law is lack of democratic legitimacy. The lack of an EU ‘demos’, the supremacy of EU law and its imposition by QMV mean that EU law has a weak democratic legitimacy even on the day it is first agreed. But this weak legitimacy decays further with time. For example, politicians from the era of Charles De Gaulle have left behind the CAP which has remained unloved but beyond the reach of our votes for 40 years such that people can barely remember why it was created in the first place. Major, Mitterand and Co. have bound today’s leaders with rules they created on the minimum rate of VAT which prevent Brown and Sarkozy implementing policies to reduce VAT on green products and restaurant bills. If EU law is allowed to persist indefinitely it clogs up the arteries of democracy with an ever growing body of EU law with ever decaying legitimacy.
In post #2 I suggested sunset clauses with a maximum of 19 years for EU law, this figure being based on a calculation by Thomas Jefferson on the time taken for half the electorate to be replaced by a new generation of voters. Even though human life spans have increased since Jefferson’s time I think 19 years could be a good maximum time for EU law as it would mean that every piece of EU legislation would either timeout or have its legitimacy refreshed within the life-span of 4 EU Parliaments and Commissions. This would be an automatic mechanism to trim EU law whose legitimacy had decayed.
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"19 years is the term beyond which neither the representatives of a nation, nor even the whole nation itself assembled, can validly extend a debt." – T. Jefferson ('The Earth belongs to the living')
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl81.htm
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This idea is all very fine but everyone is saying that there need to be and there will be a hugely increased level of regulation of the financial sector.
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Freeborn-John has it, for me.
There's a lot of Bull**** here about too many bureaucrats, etc, by people who don't know what they're talking about.
For Freeborn-John's prize, I'd suggest a week in Brussels living on the same expenses as an EMP gets. And if you need someone to show you the way around that place, I'm available (expenses too, of course!).
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Frenchderek (21): Well I won't be entering the Commission's competition, so if anyone wants to put forward this 19-year sunset clause idea feel free. Prague is a beautiful city but if the Commissioners think that the "opportunity to present" oneself to them has appeal they are more out of touch than I thought. Maybe Verhuegan imagines he is Yul Brynner in 'the King and I' but I don't see myself playing the part of Anna.
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Freeborn-John @ 22
I must admit, If someone offered me Brussels as a prize - I too might screw up the winning ticket, throw it away and bury the wastebin as being toxic!
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#23 - Menedemus
Really? I would give all the Eurocrats notice to quit, pack them all off to some shiny new capital in the middle of nowhere and give Brussels back to it's rightful owners - the eating classes.
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We have this thing called the EU so this is not the time or the place about pointless posts about getting rid of it (other ways to do that)
My suggestion actually adds complexity but is an essential element in countries where legislation does work. That is before passing any legislation you must have an implementation plan and specific buy in and commitments from the civil servants in each member state that have to implement it.
This is so obvious. As it is 40% of the EU ignore legislation, 40% half heartedly implement it and then that leaves Britain who golds plates it
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I can save the EU 49.7 billion Eur p.a. right now. That's 46% of the total budget. Scrap the CAP.
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I appreciate that some people think that the issue of EU bureacrats is not important but I wonder if there is a breakdown of which EU Nationalities have the most 'jobs' in Brussels, Strasburg and Luxembourg employed by the EU?
Does anyone know?
My guess would be the French who have the most jobs in the EU organisation but I am open to persuasion that it is not.
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"best idea for red tape reduction"
Sunset clauses look attractive but I've a strong suspicion that they could lead to an unsupportable workload for those required to review legislation. You could conceivably end up needing more Eurocrats!
"what should the winners be given as a prize?"
Easy. The job of President of the European Commission charged primarily with seeing through the reduction of red tape. Come on boys 'n' girls, a job that you can put your heart and soul into and a big fat salary and pension to boot.
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Re: #27
It is okay, I found the answer:
Statistical Bulletin - Personnel of The Commission
It is the Belgians, followed by the French, Italians and Spanish in that order. Great work if you can get it!
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27. Menedemus:
"I wonder if there is a breakdown of which EU Nationalities have the most 'jobs' in Brussels, Strasburg and Luxembourg employed by the EU?
Does anyone know? "
Belgian. See
http://ec.europa.eu/civil_service/about/figures/index_en.htm
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Send all the eurocrats and euro MPs home for a year. Assuming Europe survives (and I think it just might) then at least there is no more red tape generated.
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Please don't knock Brussels (the city). The architecture is great and the food fantastic.
As for Brussels the concept......
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Sounds like a job for ex Prime Minister Jim Hacker.
Perhaps the prize could be a box set of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister.
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Working for a printer that publishes these laws, I *LOVE* this red tape ! Keep it up !
My prize - get a pay rise because business has increased !
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Let's just leave and leave them to it.
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How about following to the letter absolutley every rule the have introduced and (where possible) gold plating it as far as the rules allow.
Then the pulbic would be up in arms, and everyone would see how expensive, pointless and preposterous the whole mess is and start again.
Then again -- the UK have been doing this for years and depiste the problems being clear for all to see, the EU still lumbers on...
My first memory of the EU is around the time of the referendum - they were talking about reforming the CAP (common agricultural policy) -- funily enough most of my other memories of the EU over the intervening decades are also them talking about reforming the CAP.
I wonder if it will be any different for my great-great grandchildren...
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Incentives are the key:
make the salaries of all Commissioners and MEPs inversely proportional to the amount of regulation.
There is a detail to be worked out: how to measure the amount of regulation. I don't have a solution, but I can have a stab at it if pressed.
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#25 Jack Kilms - this man deserves a prize for paragraph 3:
'' 40% of the EU ignores the legislation, 40% half heartedly implement it, leaving Britain who gold plates it ''
Britain slavishly adheres to any old tripe emanating from the EU with a zeal bordering on the fanatical, and sparing no expense in implementing the endless overblown trivia conjured up by the Brussels bureacracy.
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« High Level Group of Independent Stakeholders on Administrative Burden » ? How about « External Audit on Red Tape » ? The EU has a bad case of HLG mania, which uses up a lot of money (our money) and produces virtually nothing (our problem). How about transparency rules for a start, and real democracy ? or should the Irish keep voting until they say « yes » ?
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