LIB DEMS WELCOME "PLAIN LANGUAGE" SUMMARIES ATOP OF EU LEGISLATION

5.08.48pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 16th May 2006

Lib Dem Legal Affairs Spokesperson, Diana Wallis MEP, has welcomed a European Parliament success that means all EU legislation will be introduced by a "Citizens Summary"; in effect an easy to understand, plain language explanation of the legislation. The Commission had attempted to block the introduction of these summaries.

Commenting, Ms Wallis said:

"It is important that the European Parliament is at the forefront of the 'better law-making' debate and has on this occasion been making a strong commitment to reforming and improving the functioning of the EU and in doing so hopefully fight the fog of EU lawmaking.

"I believe every directive should be as clear as possible, and we legislators should regard the primary audience of every directive as interested private citizens, not lawyers.

"Directives may never be written in the plainest of plain language, but they should at least be understandable to ordinary people who are prepared to make an effort.

"For this reason the proposals are supported by the Plain Language Commission."

Emma Wagner, co-founder of the Fight the Fog campaign, said:

"After years of promises to 'bring Europe closer to its citizens', the European Parliament has taken a real step forward by voting to provide citizen's summaries of EU laws. Finally the fog is lifting!"