Today (25 April 2013) the Dutch Watchdog on administrative burden (ACTAL) will launch its agenda for 2013: ‘Towards tangible less regulatory pressure.’ ACTAL has organised a seminar to celebrate the event at Pulchri Studio the Hague. During the seminar a book containing essays on the quest to reduce regulatory red tape and methods to make regulation more effective will be presented to the Dutch Minister of the Interior, mr. Plasterk. A prize for the best essay on reduction of regulatory pressure will be awarded as well. The event starts at 14.00. More news to follow in this group. http://www.actal.nl/english/about-actal/
A ‘purple Crocodile’ has become the Dutch ‘Logo’ for the phenomenon of red tape and regulatory burden. The idea was taken from a TV-add (2010/2011) in which a parent – with child in hand – asks a swimming pool clerk seated behind a glass walled counter whether the purple crocodile (a swimming pool toy) his son lost that day is found. Although the purple crocodile is in plain view, and the child is pointing at it feverishly, the clerk refuses to take a look behind his back and tells the parent in an icy voice to fill out and file a lost and found form….