Less than two months after it pledged to reduce the business red tape in 13 areas – including the working environment and employment law – the EU has produced its first proposals.
Admittedly, the early fast-track process is particularly aimed at reducing the administrative burden on SMEs. But the overall programme aims to cut red tape by 25 per cent by 2012.
The new directive and regulations (which combine multiple pieces of earlier legislation) are targeted at transport companies, small bakers, butchers and grocery shops and the merger or division of enterprises.
Commission vice president Günter Verheugen, responsible for enterprise and industry policy, said: “The commission is sticking to its promise to cut unnecessary administrative costs. Through minor changes that will not affect the level of protection, this package will substantially reduce paperwork and make life easier for entrepreneurs. By doing this in a speedy manner we show that we’re serious about removing burdens for enterprises.”
The measures include removing the requirement for companies to commission costly expert reports, concerning the draft terms of mergers or divisions, if there is no demand for these reports among shareholders.
This simplification applies to more than 600.000 public limited liability companies across Europe, although it is expected that mostly SMEs will make use of the exemption. It is estimated that the average cost of such reports amount to roughly €3,500.
In addition, freight carriers will not have to carry separate transport documents explaining frontier crossing points and routes to be taken. Around 300,000 freight carriers are expected to benefit.
Minister for the Cabinet Office Hilary Armstrong said: “Red tape is both costly and irritating for business. In a globalised economy, we have to get rid of unnecessary bureaucracy if we are to compete successfully.
“The UK set a target last December to cut administrative burdens by 25 per cent. The EU has now followed suit. This EU agreement will reduce some of the biggest burdens, so that businesses can spend less time filling in forms and more time concentrating on improving their competitive position.”
John Cridland, deputy director-general of the CBI, said: “With so much of the regulatory burden facing UK businesses stemming from Brussels, this commitment is very welcome. It is now vital that these proposals have full impact on the commission and parliament in practice.”
One Response
European Business Law
Any suggestion that the EU might be cutting red tape strikes me as being, shall I say, rather surprising? – I’d hate to be cynical – and maybe even vote-gathering?
With no political allegiances personally but having worked intimately with businesses at a senior level across the EU for some 30 years, I would venture to suggest that most European Directives affecting business have been unashamedely driven by a populist, syndicalist and protectionist lobby that has rarely had any regard for the genuine interests of business more broadly, other than through wider regional regeneration policies and very national special interests.
More, in the UK, we have had a series of Governments that have dutifully delivered such Directives to the letter, and more sometimes, while many other member states have not. (You may perhaps recall several different UK lobbies in the past asking for a ‘level playing field’? I do!)
I have no partial political point to make, and I am all in favour of the EEC as a free-trade zone, but the idea of the headline of this article (‘EU pushes ahead in cutting red tape for business’) must strike more than me as being deeply ironic?
Did not the EU create much of this red tape in the first place? And for whose benefit?
This is an entirely private thought, but as employers, can we let such ‘canards’ escape more public expression?
Jeremy