Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related acts - Declarations adopted by the Conference - Declaration on the quality of the drafting of Community legislation

The Conference notes that the quality of the drafting of Community legislation is crucial if it is to be properly implemented by the competent national authorities and better understood by the public and in business circles. It recalls the conclusions on this subject reached by the Presidency of the European Council in Edinburgh on 11 and 12 December 1992, as well as the Council Resolution on the quality of drafting of Community legislation adopted on 8 June 1993 (Official Journal of the European Communities, C 166 of 17 June 1993, p. 1).

The Conference considers that the three institutions involved in the procedure for adopting Community legislation, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, should lay down guidelines on the quality of drafting of the said legislation. It also stresses that Community legislation should be made more accessible and welcomes in this regard the adoption and first implementation of an accelerated working method for official codification of legislative texts, established by the Interinstitutional Agreement of 20 December 1994 (Official Journal of the European Communities, C 102 of 4 April 1996, p. 2).

Therefore, the Conference declares that the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission ought to:

- establish by common accord guidelines for improving the quality of the drafting of Community legislation and follow those guidelines when considering proposals for Community legislation or draft legislation, taking the internal organisational measures they deem necessary to ensure that these guidelines are properly applied;

- make their best efforts to accelerate the codification of legislative texts.