4 January 2016, The Hague – The Netherlands is to use its six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union to support the ‘Make it Work’ initiative, a joint undertaking with the United Kingdom and Germany on improving the coherence of EU environmental law.
The Make it Work initiative will support the European Commission’s objective for ‘Better Regulation’, which is under the purview of Dutch Commissioner, and Commission First Vice-President, Frans Timmermans. In its 2016 Work Programme, the Commission announced that it would perform a “fitness check to identify opportunities to simplify and alleviate reporting obligations stemming from EU environmental law with a view to develop a more modern, efficient and effective system for regulatory monitoring”.
The initiative has the specific aim of developing horizontal principles on improving procedures such as permitting or inspections across EU environmental directives and regulations, and is working with the Commission to revise and modernise reporting obligations.
For more information, see the website of the Dutch EU Presidency.