At the Competitiveness Council on Thursday 7 December, the ministers responsible for Competitiveness and Industry of the EU27 discussed the administrative burden weighing down European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and hampering their competitiveness.
The subject has already been addressed, both by the Parliament (see EUROPE 13299/16) and by the Commission, which has proposed a package of legislative measures to reduce the burden of EU bureaucracy (see EUROPE 13248/21).
Among the Member States, France, Germany and the Baltic States are the most involved in this area. Paris and Berlin had already presented a ‘Joint Agenda to Reduce Bureaucracy and Unleash Creative Forces’ in October (see EUROPE 13269/19).
This discussion point was added to the meeting agenda at the explicit request of France, Germany and Denmark. These three countries then presented their own initiatives to reduce the administrative burden.
For Denmark, the EU’s green and digital transition “must under no circumstances be at the expense of the competitiveness” of European industries. Along with Finland, Latvia and Estonia, Denmark has sent the Council and the Commission a ‘non-paper’ setting out its preferred ways of transforming European bureaucracy. In particular, they stress the importance of simplifying cross-border data flows.
France and Germany welcome the initiative proposed by the Nordic countries, which complements the proposals listed in the joint declaration published by the two countries last October.
“It is absolutely essential that we tackle this issue head on. We jointly call on the Commission to develop an ambitious action plan on European bureaucracy”, said Sven Giegold, German Secretary of State for Monetary Affairs. Roland Lescure, the French minister, added that it was “essential for the mandatory environmental studies to be calibrated and comprehensible, particularly for SMEs”. He also called for a “holistic” examination of all the legislative initiatives implemented by the Commission, and their concrete impact.
See the ratings for France and Germany: https://aeur.eu/f/8ZO (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)