Luc Hendrickx Portorož – 22 April 2005 Simplification: Doing business has to become easier

Simplification: do not simplify!  Does not mean deregulation / liberalisation  Less legislation is a myth !  Broader objective: Better regulation;  Rethink the whole regulatory process;

Why better regulation?  Reduce costs;  Competitiveness;  Better enforcement;  Attract foreign investment;  Close the « gap »;

European Charter for Small Enterprises  « Small enterprises are the first to suffer if weighed down with excessive bureaucracy. And they are the first to flourish from initiatives to cut red tape. »  Action line 3: « New regulations at national and Community level should be screened to asses their impact on small enterprises and entrepreneurs. Wherever possible, national and EC rules should be simplified. Governments should adopt user-friendly administrative documents. »

Old problem – new solutions?  Awareness in all the EU countries with a lot of initiatives;  EC plays active role in promotion of regulatory management in the MS and in implementing it in its own policies;  But: Too slow…  High number of new legislation ànd the bad quality has deeper reasons, which cannot be solved by “simplification” initiatives only;  Rethink the whole regulatory process - need for a new regulatory culture;

What is the problem?  Regulations create red-tape and are (too) complex But there is more…the content  The claimed objectives are not clear or not reached;  Unbalance between advantages and costs;  Costs are unnecessary high due to not adopted rules (no room for alternatives);  Rules are not executable or enforceable;

Need for a Regulatory Management Three components:  Judicial and technical simplification;  Administrative relief;  Business Impact Assessments;

1. Judicial and technical simplification (1)  Simplification: two aspects/views: 1.Modification of legislation without effecting the substance of the underlying policy 2.Efforts to simplify the substance of a policy, e.g. its objectives or scope;  Codification; good governance;  Simplification has nothing to do with the length of the legal text or its generality

1. Judicial and technical simplification (2) Criteria:  Necessity and effective  Efficient and balanced  Implementable and enforceable  Legitimate  Coherent  Simple, clear and accessible  Founded and consulted on  Lastingly relevant and topical.

UEAPME calls for “Think small first” approach  Better in time (early stage) consultation of the representative small business community;  Reasonable consultation times;  Reasonable time frames for the implementation of legislation;  Conducting effective information campaigns regarding changes required by new legislation;  Staff in (European, national,…) public administrations should be encouraged to become more aware of the small businesses;  Avoiding “gold plating” – dialogue between COM and MS;  Mandate in High-level Group Regulatory Experts;

2. Administrative relief  Rewrite administrative procedures;  Need for development of specific tools: readable, user-friendly forms; “only once” principle – pre- filled forms;  Better regulation Units in DGs;  A European Measuring instrument has to be developed to map the administrative burden of the regulations (cfr. Dutch MISTRAL model);  Setting coherent, transparent and clear understandable criteria for administrative procedures to access EC funds;

3. Impact assessments  To allow to make choices on the basis of analysis of economic, social and environmental impact;  From 2005 on for key legislative proposals;  To be paid by the legislator;

Some Homework !!!!  Commissioner Verheugen: “ suggestions as to which areas of EU legislation would benefit most from simplification.”  End of June !!  Main indicator: impact on SMEs, especially small enterprises;