Simplifying European legislation means weeding out the superfluous by rigorously applying the tests of whether it is necessary and proportionate. The exercise mainly involves the recasting and formal or informal consolidation of legislation. This concept has grown in importance since the White Paper on the Completion of the Single Market, and was explicitly put forward by the Edinburgh European Council in 1992. Since then a concentrated effort has been made to establish a market guaranteeing the four freedoms, but this has meant a wealth of European legislation. Simplifying this mass of law has now become a priority in order to ensure that Community action is transparent and effective. A declaration on the quality of the drafting of Community legislation is attached to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference (1997). It recommends that the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission lay down guidelines for improving the form of legislation. A pilot programme (Simplification of Legislation for the Internal Market SLIM) covering four specific areas was launched in May 1996. The programme examined 17 different legislative sectors during five phases of activity between 1996 and 2002. In February 2003 the Commission's programme on Simplification was adopted. A range of initiatives (codification, consolidation, the removal of out-of-date texts and simplification) is planned, and regular progress reports will be presented. In parallel, the European Convention on institutional reform, set up following the Laeken Declaration (2001), has a working group on the simplification of instruments and procedures. Members of this group have already alerted the Convention to the need to redouble efforts to recast and formally consolidate Community legislation and to improve legislative drafting