Widely reported in the media, the UK Government's new drive against EU red tape. On the strength of a report 'Cut EU Red Tape,’put forward by a panel of six business leaders including Marks & Spencer chief executive, the Prime minister will be seeking more action at EU level at the summmit next week in Brussels.
The panel which was established after last June's EU summit, has just tabled its report which includes a series of 30 recommendation to slash labour rules of EU origin, including exempting companies with less than 10 employees from all new employment laws, ending plans to compel restructuring businesses from paying to retrain redundant staff, and allowing employers to change employment contracts in TUPE-style takeover situations.
Also included: scrapping the need for small businesses in low risk sectors to keep written health and safety records, scrapping proposals on shale gas, implementing the law on cross-border services and revamping rules limiting employee working hours. The report looks at barriers to overall competitiveness, to starting a company and employing people, to expanding a business, to trading across borders and to innovation. In several areas it calls on the EU to take further legislative steps by, for example, completing the digital single market or adopting rules to cap payment card fees
In addition to the 30 recommendations, the taskforce has designed a "filter" to ensure future EU laws are not overly burdensome on companies across the continent, which relies on better RIAs and a competitiveness test to ascertain that the new regulation is indeed required.
For more, see Daily Telegraph article, Reuters and European Voice summaries. The Guardian calls for a careful distinction between red tape and useful, protective, regulation.
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