Hutton wants to involve businesses at an early stage |
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Sun, 25 Sep 2005 06:05
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LONDON - Playing its role as the president of the European Union to perfection, the UK government has called upon Brussels to reduce the red tape under which deals are conducted.
Addressing a Better Regulation conference in Edinburgh today, Cabinet minister for regulation John Hutton said, “There is no such thing as cost-free or cost-neutral regulation and in many cases, business or consumers or both meet that cost. If we don’t involve business at a profound level, we will make mistakes.” He felt that it was important to involve business which should be the "co-author, rather than the victim" of any new regulations that are introduced. "There are welcome signs that the culture is starting to change within the EU. . . we're getting momentum," Mr. Hutton told the Edinburgh conference delegates.
The minister’s comments came in the wake of the findings by the Better Regulation Task Force which showed that involving all sections of the society in the early stages of a legislation ensured that its passage as well as acceptance would be smooth, "A lot of people do feel disconnected from the EU at the present time. Consultation is one of the tools to get people engaged." said David Arculus, who chairs the task force. Regulation in the EU costs about 10 to 12 percent of the gross domestic product and almost a third of this goes towards unnecessary bureaucracy.
Responding to Mr. Hutton's comments, business delegates from all over Europe have expressed happiness that an important issue has at last been noticed, "I have to compliment the government on the lip service it's paid to improving regulation. But I remember sitting discussing this in a conference 10 years ago. We've made very little progress since then," said Alison Beer, campaigns manager of the Forum of Private Business.
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