Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on which EU member states are leading on the EU Make It Work initiative; which industries are providing input; what the timetable is for public consultation; and what the objectives of the UK are in relation to that initiative.

The Netherlands, UK and Germany have established the Make it Work initiative to promote a European dialogue on improving EU environmental legislation.

The UK’s ambition, shared by others involved, is to make it easier for business and others to comply with environmental requirements whilst continuing to maintain environmental protections. The aim is to establish a network of Member States committed to supporting actions to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of EU environmental legislation through sharing best practice and investigating opportunities for simplification. In addition the initiative will seek to establish an expert group to exchange views on improving the quality and coherence of the EU environmental acquis as a whole and develop guiding principles for “smart” EU environmental legislation both generally and on specific topics.

The following EU Member States attended one or both of the workshops that have been held so far: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. In addition, there have been contacts with others such as France. The European Commission and the European Union Network for the Implementation of Environmental Law (IMPEL) were also represented.

There have been some informal discussions with stakeholders but formal input has not been sought from business or other stakeholders though it is planned to do this in future.