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EU bosses to focus pared-down agenda on growth, jobs, energy

By Barbara Lewis

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU policymakers promised on Tuesday to focus on core issues such as jobs and growth as they unveiled legislative plans for 2015, but drew charges they had sacrificed the environment to appease Eurosceptic critics.

Following a year of dispute with the European Union's top energy supplier Russia over its treatment of Ukraine, the EU executive said energy security was also a priority in the slimmed-down work plan it presented to the European Parliament.

Other European Commission proposals will seek to combat tax evasion and fraud, an issue that has put Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on the defensive because of criticism of his native Luxembourg's fiscal practices.

Frans Timmermans, first vice-president in charge of better regulation, said the new Commission wanted to "clear the decks" and focus on the real priorities.

It had looked through more than 400 pending proposals left behind by the previous executive, he said, and decided whether to maintain, amend or withdraw them.

The result is the 2015 work plan sets out only 23 new initiatives and seeks to axe 80 existing proposals. Previous executives have on average presented 130 new plans.

Among the drafts being scrapped is an environmental law on reducing waste and making the air cleaner, drawing criticism from campaign groups, innovative businesses and some politicians.

They accuse the Commission of being overly concerned by an EU backlash across the bloc, particularly in Britain, where Prime Minister David Cameron is offering voters a referendum on leaving the Union.

They also say the executive has ignored the benefits of such plans, in terms of reduced health costs and energy bills.

Timmermans said the Commission would instead deliver more effective ways to improve the environment.

Among the first to react to the new work plan was lobby group Business Europe, which represents major business interests, such as ExxonMobil and BP.

Its Director General Markus J. Beyrer applauded the Commission's understanding of a need to be "big on big things and small on small things" and said its "political courage" would pay off.

Liberal politicians were less impressed.

"This is not killing obsolete proposals, this is destroying Europe's health and environmental policies," said Fredrick Federley, a Swedish member of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

(editing by John Stonestreet)