Official launch of REFIT Platform: New approach brings together stakeholders for better regulation and better results

Today in Brussels, First Vice-President Frans Timmermans chairs the first meeting of the REFIT Platform. Forty-eight members from a diverse range of stakeholders, the European Economic and Social Committee, the European Committee of the Regions and all Member State governments will come together to make EU legislation and its implementation in Member States more efficient and more effective in achieving its objectives. By bringing together a diverse group of experts on the concrete impact of EU legislation on the ground, this initiative will provide a basis for inclusive work on the common goal of better regulation for better results. First Vice-President Timmermans said: “To deliver what citizens expect from us, reviewing and improving existing EU rules is just as important as making new proposals. 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 everyday 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.” A press release is available here.