§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if the simpler legislation for the Internal Market Initiative applies to single market legislation which does not take the form of European Community directives; and what measures exist to simplify legislation currently in force outside of the single market field. [72531]
§ Mr. KilfoyleI have been asked to reply.
Apart from EC Directives, the Simpler Legislation for the Internal Market (SLIM) initiative also covers EC Regulations—the other type of generally-applicable legally-binding EC instrument—in the Single Market field.
A Community simplification initiative that goes wider than the Single Market field is the work by the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of Ministers on codification of existing EC legislation. By providing official consolidated texts of legislative acts and their amendments it makes EC legislation more accessible and provides greater legal certainty. It covers all areas of EC legislation and has for example already been applied to legislation in the fields of agriculture, fisheries and social policy in addition to Single Market legislation.
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