Number of EU Regulations

European Commission Spokesman's Briefing for 03-02-12 click here.

There is often controversy about how much EU law there actually is, with many different figures being quoted. Actually, I suspect that even the Commission does not know, but it does at least know how many pages of legislation there are. Here is the definitive source (see link above, courtesy of Christopher Booker, who obtained it from the Commission web site). I have posted a permanent link under “EU documents” – see left – for future reference.

05] Commission launches major initiative to simplify and streamline EU legislation

The European Commission has adopted a Communication setting out an ambitious and detailed Framework for Action to simplify, streamline and improve access to the body of EU law, known as the acquis communautaire. This is the latest stage in the Commission's Better Regulation initiative, a key part of the objective set at the Lisbon summit in 2000 of making the EU the world's most competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010.

The initiative aims to establish a reliable, up-to-date and user-friendly body of EU law for the benefit of citizens, workers and businesses across Europe. As a first contribution, the Commission now proposes immediate removal of obsolete legislation amounting to over 1,000 pages of the Official Journal.

Through a concerted programme of consolidation and codification, it is estimated that the volume of legislation could be reduced by as much as 35,000 pages by 2005.

At the end of 2002, the body of binding secondary legislation adopted by the European institutions amounted to 97,000 pages of the Official Journal. The Commission now looks to the European Parliament and the March European Council to endorse its approach.