REFIT Platform

The REFIT Platform brings together high-level experts from stakeholders and Member States in regular meetings to improve existing EU legislation.

The body of EU law must remain fit for purpose, up to date and as simple as possible. To ensure this, we need to hear the views of those who really know: the citizens, the small entrepreneurs, the public administrators who are faced every day with the advantages but also sometimes the inefficiencies of our laws and the way they are implemented by Member States. The REFIT Platform is there to collect their views, assess them and turn them into pragmatic and operational suggestions to the European Commission.

First Vice-President Timmermans

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4 | REFIT Platform

The REFIT Platform was set up by the May 2015 Better Regulation Communication to advise the Commission on how to make existing EU regulation more efficient and effective while reducing burden and without undermining policy objectives.

It consists of a Stakeholder group, with 18 members and two representatives from the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Committee of the Regions, and a Government group, with one high-level expert from each of the EU’s 28 Member States. The members of the Stakeholder group were selected through a public call for applications and are appointed until 31 October 2019.

Platform members consider suggestions made by citizens and stakeholders via the online form ‘Lighten the load’, assess the merits of these contributions and look at practical ways how follow-up can be recommended to the Commission.

What is the REFIT Platform?

REFIT Platform | 5

Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission, speaking on the adoption of the Better Regulation Agenda of the EC during a press conference in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 19 May 2015

6 | REFIT Platform

The REFIT Platform Plenary meetings are chaired by the First Vice-President of the European Commission. In accordance with Commission decision C(2015)3261, the Refit Platform groups are chaired by the chair of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB), Anne Bucher.

The REFIT Platform comprises two expert groups: a Government group and a Stakeholder group.

The Government group consists of high-level officials. The Stakeholder group consists of up to 20 experts representing business, SMEs, civil society organisations and social partners, with a direct experience in the application of Union legislation. Two members represent the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Committee of Regions. The members of the Stakeholder group have been selected to ensure, to the extent possible, a balanced representation of the various sectors, interests and regions of the Union and gender.

Reference documents: • Commission Decision C(2015) 3261 establishing the REFIT Platform

• Commission Decision C(2015) 9063 of 16 December 2015 appointing the members of the Stakeholder group of the REFIT Platform

• Communication COM(2015) 215 ‘Better Regulation for better results - an EU agenda’

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-making-process/overview-law-making-process/evaluating-and-improving-existing-laws/reducing-burdens-and-simplifying-law/refit-platform/refit-platform-members_en

REFIT Platform members

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First meeting of the REFIT Platform on 29 January 2016

8 | REFIT Platform

Civil society organisations 9

Social partners 3

Business (including SMEs) 6

Gender representation of the Stakeholders of the REFIT PlatformCategories represented by the Stakeholders of the REFIT Platform

European Institutions 2

REFIT Platform | 9

How does the REFIT Platform function?

Suggestions to the Platform are submitted online via ‘Lighten the load’, by Platform members, or are made through other means (e.g. letters addressed to the Commission).

The EU helpdesk ‘Europe Direct’ provides an explanation to those who have submitted a suggestion that falls outside of the mandate of the REFIT Platform.

The submissions are assessed by the Stakeholder group, which establishes priorities to be handled over a 6-12 month period.

The Government group contributes to this work. Members of both groups may also raise their own suggestions.

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Suggestions on how to make EU laws and initiatives more effective and efficient can be submitted via the online contact form ‘Lighten the load’. All suggestions are published and made accessible to the Platform members by the Secretariat-General of the European Commission. Suggestions falling outside of the mandate of the REFIT Platform are either answered by the Commission or by the EU helpdesk ‘Europe Direct’.

What is ‘Lighten the load – Have your say’? How can you submit suggestions?

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Number of submissions* to the REFIT Platform per country (Total: 272)

48

34 33 32

26

2220

10 108 7

5 4 42 2 2 1

Swed

en

Ger

man

y

Finl

and

The

Net

herla

nds

Den

mar

k

Aust

ria

Belg

ium

**

Italy

Stak

ehol

der

grou

p m

embe

rs

Latv

ia

Uni

ted

King

dom

Fran

ce

Spai

n

Nor

way

Irela

nd

Oth

er

Mal

ta

Rom

ania

Croa

tia

Port

ugal

1 1

* Represents submissions received from all sources (‘Lighten the Load’, letters, members) until April 2017.

** Belgium includes European organisations based in Brussels.

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Guiding principles• Transparency – The REFIT Platform works in a transparent way and operates in full accordance with

the Commission’s general rules on expert groups. Suggestions, meeting minutes and working documents are all made public.

• Inclusiveness – Work is based on input from stakeholders and from the Platform members themselves, as well as on requests from the Commission. External experts can be invited to participate on specific issues.

• Responsiveness – The Platform responds to all suggestions received. If the Platform decides not to pursue a suggestion, an explanation is provided to the relevant stakeholder.

Exclusion criteriaThe Platform does not prepare opinions on issues:

• that are currently being examined by the European Parliament and Council on a proposal from the Commission in the EU legislative procedure;

• covered by recent legislative proposals which only entered into application less than two years ago and so there is too short period of experience of the application of the measure for sound conclusions on its performance to be drawn;

• subject to a planned or on-going consultation of the social partners;

• which concern the implementation of EU law in one or only a few Member States.

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The lead reporter within the Stakeholder group collects input from members and other sources, prepares a draft opinion with the help of the secretariat and presents it to the group. External experts and/or relevant Commission services may be invited to participate in the discussion of the issues. The Government group is also invited to contribute to the opinion.

The full REFIT Platform, composed of all members of both groups, discusses and adopts the opinion. Opinions do not have to be endorsed by all members and divergent views can be contained on one opinion. It is not excluded that one group adopts an opinion on its own.

Adopted REFIT Platform opinions can be consulted on the REFIT Platform website under ‘recommendations’.

How are Platform opinions elaborated and adopted?

How does the Commission respond to opinions?

The Commission is committed to respond to all opinions indicating whether it considers some action is appropriate, the type of action envisaged as well as the foreseen timing. Detailed information on the Platform opinions and Commission’s follow-up actions are set out in the Commission’s Annual Work Programmes and in the REFIT Scoreboard.

Adopted opinions can be viewed: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-making-process/overview-law-making-process/evaluating-and-improving-existing-laws/reducing-burdens-and-simplifying-law/refit-platform/refit-platform-recommendations_en

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Workflow of the REFIT Platform1. Suggestions are submitted

2. Secretariat makes all suggestions available to the Platform members and undertakes a first screening on behalf of the Platform

2b. Relevant suggestions2a. Not relevant suggestions are referred to the EU helpdesk ‘Europe

Direct’ or answered directly by Commission services 3. Stakeholder group (StG)

reporters suggest priorities for the preparation of new

Platform opinions

4. Government group (GoG) considers StG prioritisation and identifies those on which it is

interested to contribute

5. Secretariat replies on behalf of the Platform

6. StG reporter prepares draft opinions, shares them with the StG and finalises them

6. GoG finalises its input to draft opinions

7. Secretariat consolidates input from the two groups

8. Final adoption of opinions

9. Commission communicates follow-up actions

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Since its establishment, the REFIT Platform has received over 272 relevant suggestions on how to make EU law more effective and efficient. Relevant suggestions received by the Commission have been regrouped into thematic areas and can be consulted online.

Number of submissions received per policy sector (Total 272)

REFIT Platform output

44

34

24 23

18 17 17

12 12 118

1011

6 64 3 3 3 2 1

Agric

ultu

re

Inte

rnal

mar

ket

Heal

th a

nd fo

od s

afet

y

Fina

ncia

l st

abili

ty, s

ervi

ces

Envi

ronm

ent

Cons

umer

pol

icy

Taxa

tion

and

cust

oms

unio

n

Just

ice

Tran

spor

t and

mob

ility

Com

petit

ion

Horiz

onta

l

Empl

oym

ent a

nd s

ocia

l aff

airs ICT

Chem

ical

s

Regi

onal

pol

icy

Stat

istic

s

Clim

ate

actio

n

Mig

ratio

n an

d as

ylum

Ener

gy

Mar

itim

e aff

airs

Trad

e

Educ

atio

n an

d cu

lture

3

REFIT Platform | 17

Submissions adopted by the REFIT Platform per thematic areas

The REFIT Platform has adopted 32 opinions (recommendations) between May 2015 and April 2017, covering 48 individual submissions received by stakeholders. The thematic areas covered by the adopted opinions include: agriculture, chemicals, communication networks, competition, environment, horizontal issues, financial services, health and food safety, internal market, regional policy, statistics and taxation and customs union.

See: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-making-process/overview-law-making-process/evaluating-and-improving-existing-laws/reducing-burdens-and-simplifying-law/refit-platform/refit-platform-recommendations_en.

Work in other thematic areas (e.g. employment and social affairs, education, home, migration and asylum, maritime affairs and consumer policy) is currently ongoing.

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The best way to illustrate the impact of the REFIT Platform is through concrete examples.

What is the impact of the REFIT Platform?

The REFIT Platform adopted an opinion on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) in which the Stakeholder group and some members of the Government group recommend reviewing the ECI to make it more ‘fit for purpose’.

The opinion of the REFIT Platform on the ECI broadly echoes some of the challenges regarding the ECI identified by stakeholders and EU institutions and bodies over the two past years and the Commission will take into consideration the issues identified by the Platform in the ongoing review of the implementation of the ECI instrument.

The Commission will bring forward a proposal drawing inter alia on a public consultation in 2017/2018.

EXAMPLE 1 – The European Citizens’ Initiative

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In its opinion on financial reporting the REFIT Platform identified the need to streamline financial reporting to various supervisory authorities in order to reduce unnecessary administrative burden on financial institutions.

This opinion confirmed the evidence gathered by the European Commission as part of its Call for evidence and reinforced the need for action. The Commission attaches particular importance to the need to avoid duplication and overly burdensome requirements and announced in the Commission Work Programme 2017 that it will undertake a Fitness Check which will review reporting requirements in the financial sector to address the concerns around compliance costs holistically in the medium to long term. The completion of the Fitness check is expected in the course of 2018.

EXAMPLE 2 – Financial Services

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In response to two submissions received from organisations, the REFIT Platform adopted an opinion on Points of Single Contact, recommending to the Commission the establishment of a single entry point for business in each Member State to assist companies operating in the Single Market. The Platform also suggests that the Commission further establishes minimum criteria for the performance of Points of Single Contact and that this exercise is integrated into the preparations of the Single Digital Gateway proposal and aligned with other relevant initiatives such as the services card. The Commission has paid particular attention to these recommendations and addressed the reported problems in its proposal on the Single Digital Gateway.

The initiative is planned to provide all the information people need to do business cross-border, travel to another EU country, live, study or work in another EU country.

EXAMPLE 3 – Internal Market

Suggestion received via ‘Lighten the load – Have your Say’: ‘A fitness check of the CAP is the only way to ensure a rigorous fact-based and unbiased review of the available evidence on how the new CAP is delivering towards the objectives of viable food production, sustainable management of natural resources and balanced territorial development.’

The above contribution assessed by the members of the REFIT Platform and led to the REFIT Platform opinion in which the Stakeholder group identified the need to ensure the ‘Effectiveness and Efficiency of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)’ by carrying out a strategic review. The majority of the Government group recommended following the existing evaluation plan established by Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 and recalled the need for decisions to taken in the respective and appropriate political forums.

Taking account of the opinion of the REFIT Platform, the Commission announced in its Work Programme for 2017 that it would take forward work and consult widely on simplification and modernisation of the CAP to maximise its contribution to the Commission’s ten priorities and to the Sustainable Development Goals. As a result, an open public consultation was launched on 2 February 2017: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/FutureCAP.

The input from the consultation will be used by the Commission to help draft a communication, due by the end of 2017, which will include conclusions on the current performance of the CAP and potential policy options for the future based on reliable evidence.

EXAMPLE 4 – the CAP

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