The committee adopted the own-initiative report by its chair, Arlene McCARTHY (PES, UK), on the implementation, consequences and impact of the internal market legislation in force. Noting that transposition and implementation of Community law continue to be a problem, the report urged the Council and the Commission to improve monitoring of the implementation of - and compliance with - European law, and said that this would make it easier to introduce sanctions for non-compliance. It also insisted that Parliament should play a "central role" in any such monitoring process.
MEPs stressed the need for a common approach to better regulation, based on a core set of regulatory principles: subsidiarity, proportionality, accountability, consistency, transparency and targeting. The Commission was urged to produce a short, clear guide to the better regulation process and to set up an "independent audit body" to structure and guarantee the quality and independence of economic impact assessments of EU law. The committee warned that Parliament would not consider proposals without their being accompanied by a quality impact assessment, and insisted that all legislative proposals forwarded to Parliament should include an executive summary of the impact assessment.
Lastly, MEPs pointed out that, although the EU institutions have committed themselves to the use of alternative regulation methods, no formal mechanism exists to consult Parliament on the measures that will be delivered by alternative regulation. The report stressed that "this absence of checks and balances undermines the democratic prerogative of Parliament". It called for Parliament to be provided with a list of policy measures in which the Commission has used alternative regulation mechanisms, together with an evaluation of the failure or success of such measures and their impact on the situation in practice. And it urged the Commission, in its annual work programme, to provide a list of those proposals which may be the subject of alternative regulation.