Codification and consolidation

(Photo: Lis Lak)
The EU has decided to assemble all laws relating to similar areas and to simplify the regulations. This is called codification.

A similar project unites laws into a single text (consolidates) by adding any amendments in to the text.
The separation of different documents containing a main law and possibly several later amendments makes it impossible to find the actual legal situation for any layman. Even experts find it very difficult.

The future

In February 2003, the Commission decided to reduce the existing 97,000 pages of law in the Official Journal by 35,000 before 2005.