Source: European Parliament
As expressed in the Political Guidelines for 2024-2029[1], the Commission has a clear focus on making business easier and faster in Europe.
This focus is underlined by the ambitious goal to reduce reporting obligations by at least 25% — and 35% for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
In this, the Commission has taken a pragmatic approach, focusing first on delivering measures with high burden reduction potential in areas stakeholders find most problematic.
Moreover, as announced in the Competitiveness Compass, the Commission will apply these targets to a baseline of existing administrative costs, thus a more ambitious target than reduction reporting burden.
Since reporting burden is a subset of all administrative burden, this reduction targets will in fact refer to the costs of all administrative burden , not only reporting.
The statistical office of the EU h as approximated the overall administrative burden baseline up to EUR 150 billion. The measures taken will be reflected in the Commission’s annual reporting cycle and will communicate on the quantification of measures contributing to the targets.
These efforts will only be effective if Member States and co-legislators avoid adding unnecessary burdens to the Commission proposals and impact assess substantial amendments they make. For this reason, the Commission will propose to renew the interinstitutional agreement on simplification and better law making.
Burden reduction is a shared commitment of the new Commission. Working with the Commissioner for implementation and simplification, each College Member will stress-test their share of EU acquis and contribute to reducing administrative burden, including reporting obligations by at least 25% and 35% for SMEs.
To address the most pressing concerns, including for SMEs, the Commission will engage in a more direct manner with stakeholders in implementation dialogues and reality checks, reaching directly to practitioners.
A new, reinforced SME and competitiveness check will be implemented, to help avoid unnecessary burdens.
- [1] https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/e6cd4328-673c-4e7a-8683-f63ffb2cf648_en?filename=Political%20Guidelines%202024-2029_EN.pdf