EU-commissaris Verheugen verheugd over vereenvouding richtlijn voor voor-verpakkingen (en)

Today the Member States of the European Union adopted the European Commission proposal to repeal the so called "knots in the wood†Directive 68/89/EEC. It regulated the quality and size of wood in the rough in detail at EU level. In the future it will be up to standardisation organisations to define wood criteria for industry. In addition to important progress of other initiatives to simplify EU legislation, today's vote is the first tangible withdrawal of a European law since the Commission announced its Better Regulation programme in spring 2005 [1] . At the same time the Member States came to a political agreement on the deregulation of packaging sizes, except for wines and spirits, which will be adopted formally in the foreseeable future. Both acts of Better Regulation were already adopted by the European Parliament. The Commission's efforts on simplification will intensify in the future, for example with regard to areas such as construction, business statistics and the environment. Moreover, the Commission has tabled an EU Action Programme cutting unnecessary administrative burdens on businesses by a quarter by 2012 at the beginning of 2007 ( IP/07/77 ).

Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen i, responsible for enterprise and industry policy, said: "I am pleased that we have got full backing from the Member States today to repeal EU legislation on wood standards, which has become a symbol of unnecessary regulation right from the beginning of the drive for Better Regulation. Today's decision underlines that we have moved from words to deeds and that we are hard working to cut unnecessary red-tape on all fronts.â€

Directive 68/89/EEC was originally meant to be a measure to develop the internal market for wood raw material supply to the forest-based industries. However, its application has been limited, since operators in the timber markets have agreed and applied other methods of measurement and classification (see IP/06/1284 ).

Pre-packed goods

The Council of Member States as well came to a political agreement to simplify EU legislation on pre-packed goods, allowing free packaging sizes for all products, except wines and spirits. This means the replacement of 27 different national rules and two EU directives on nominal quantities by one single EU directive. It also reflects jurisprudence by the European Court of Justice, which has gradually led to liberalisaton of pack sizes.

The proposal abolishes provisions dating from the seventies fixing nominal quantities in which products can be sold. It also simplifies regulation on nominal quantities by merging two directives and by combining regulation on metrological control of pre-packed products, currently dealt with under two directives, in one single act. Consequently, it repeals directives 75/106 and 80/232 and extends the scope of directive 76/211.

[1] Like every new EU proposal a repeal of EU law has to pass through the complete legislative European process.