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<p>The European Commission has committed itself to withdraw, modify or repeal legislative
proposals through a number of processes. In the 2015 Commission Work Programme, there
were 80 proposed withdrawals. Of these, 73 have now been delivered. The remaining
seven have been modified by the Commission, or were proposals where the Council and
the European Parliament had not been able to come to an agreement, but have since
made progress. A list can be found in the Official Journal of the European Union [http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:C:2015:080:FULL&from=EN].
In the 2016 Commission Work Programme, the Commission is working on the withdrawal
or modification of a further 20 proposals. The Commission has also reduced the number
of new initiatives proposed in its annual work programmes by over 80 per cent compared
to 2014.</p><p>Under the UK’s new settlement with the EU, the European Commission
has agreed for the first time to set specific targets to reduce the overall burden
on business in key sectors. The Commission has also committed to ‘establish a mechanism
to review the body of existing EU legislation for its compliance with the principle
of subsidiarity and proportionality’; in setting priorities for this review, the Commission
will be duty-bound to consult the Council and national parliaments. Further information
can be found in the Government’s White Paper, “The best of both worlds: the United
Kingdom’s special status in a reformed European Union”.</p>
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