Financial Times, den 9. oktober 2006
Fighting against overregulation and red tape
European businesses are suffering from overregulation, too complex legislation and unnecessary red tape. The European Commission has launched programmes to improve the regulatory environment, but more needs to be done. A recent Commission initiative to tackle administrative burdens on businesses could mark a turning-point. But its success depends on the active support from Commission services, Member States and the European Parliament. Commission Vice President Verheugen, together with President Barroso, is spearheading Brussels' project to improve Europe’s regulatory environment. Some steps have been taken to improve the business climate. For example, the Commission has withdrawn more than 60 unnecessary proposed laws, because they were considered obsolete, useless or overly burdensome. Likewise, the Commission will systematically assess the economic consequences of new legislative proposals before presenting them. Also the existing stock of legislation, the 85,000 pages Acquis Communautaire, is in need of maintenance. For this purpose, the Commission launched an ambitious project to simplify EU rules. Mr Verheugen rightly calls this project the flagship of the Commission. But over the summer Verheugen has voiced concern that so far results have been modest. The Commission’s plan was to simplify 54 laws this year, but until now only 5 have been tackled. That is alarming. The Commission now attempts to give the simplification project a new boost. To this end, the Commission prepares administrative cost measurements, which help in identifying the administrative costs. Mr Verheugen also considers a reduction target of around 25 percent. This falls in line with the invitation from the June 2006 European Council and we warmly welcome the plan. A quantitative target is highly effective as it will create a sense of urgency and help realise concrete results on time. The Netherlands and Denmark and many other countries follow a similar approach of targeting, measuring, and reducing the administrative costs. Most recently, the German Government decided to continue along the same lines, while the results in Denmark and the Netherlands are encouraging. For example, it enabled the Dutch Government, for the first time in history, to formulate hundreds of simplification plans that will reduce the administrative costs on businesses in the Netherlands by 25 percent in 2007. So far, about half of the reductions have been realised and the rest will follow in 2006 and 2007. The Danish Government has also launched ambitious simplification plans focussing on the most burdensome regulation and, so far, about 5 percent have been realised. The aim is to reduce the administrative burdens on businesses by up to 25 percent in 2010. This systematic approach, which more and more countries are picking up, makes a real difference and it could also work in Brussels. Together, we should focus on the most burdensome policy areas in the EU and start targeting and simplifying here. From the national measurements we know that about 40 percent of the burdens stem from the EU. In particular, EU legislation on statistics, company law, agriculture and financial services pose significant burdens on businesses across Europe. Let us begin here. Mr Verheugen’s ambition to make the EU simplification program a success requires active support from all involved parties: Commission services, Member States and the European Parliament. It is now time to speed up and deliver. The challenges of globalisation require concrete results that make a difference for businesses in Europe. Gerrit Zalm, Minister of Finance, The Netherlands Bendt Bendtsen, Minister for Economic and Business Affairs, Denmark |
