Better regulation: Charity begins at home

The Commission has issued “Better Regulation” guidelines to rethink the way new EU rules will be made. Dainius Žalimas (Laisvės partija/Lithuania), who drafted a report on the monitoring of the application of EU law, says: “Thinking about how to make better new rules is all well and good, but the Commission should start by making sure existing and mutually agreed rules are applied correctly across the EU. Our single market suffers from lack of enforcement.”

The report from Dainius Žalimas found that: "The Commission has become reluctant to initiate infringement proceedings before the European Court of Justice, even in cases involving clear and persistent breaches of EU law. The initiation of infringement procedures remains selective and are not systematically followed by enforcement action. The criteria used by the Commission to prioritize certain enforcement actions over others are not made clear or transparent. Even failure to implement ECJ rulings are not being followed through via penalty payments."

Dainius Žalimas concludes: “Better regulation is good. But effective regulation is even better.”

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