EU Advocacy » Y 2000 Declaration » Officialdom
Millennium Declaration:
Our vision on OFFICIALDOM
Small business entrepreneurs accept the need for standards and regulations within civilised society; providing a framework in which all businesses operate. Official monitoring is required by public servants to ensure compliance with agreed standards and regulations.
The role of public service officials should be to assist businesses, particularly small businesses, to comply with relevant standards and regulations in the simplest and most cost effective manner, and not to act as dictatorial enforcement officers. Politicians and public servants must also be personally accountable for their actions.
Application of these principles provides a strong basis for the acceptance of the authority vested in officialdom to ensure compliance.
Learning from the Past
Governance has become synonymous with controls and enforcement rather than service and enabling. Quality Governance (ie serving better, quicker and cheaper the needs of citizens) is needed to maintain a free market economy.
The implementation of laws is not being monitored precisely by governments and suffer from the lack of democratic control. This places an excessive and unpredictable burden on small businesses.
Officialdom too often fails to adapt to change because the system governing its work prevents it from keeping in touch with business realities (lack of direct contacts with persons or organisations directly affected by the legislation).
Too often public consultations are used to justify a preconceived position rather than to formulate new policy. Previous legislators have failed to assess the full impact of regulation on small businesses prior to implementation resulting in an unacceptable accumulative burden.
Key Policy Recommendations for the future
- Establish truly independent audit commissions within European Union member states to assess the real impact of European Union legislation before and during its implementation. In particular, these commissions would be responsible for:
- Creating a new culture of simplification based on the participation of all persons affected by legislation such as expiry clauses in legislation and simplification of all administrative forms.
- Ensuring proper Business Impact Assessments of all new legislation of EU / member state level.
- Ensuring that new regulatory approaches such as co-regulation are developed with a proper participation of small businesses
Page last updated: 28/10/2001 3:59:13 PM