Brussels, 19/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, the commissioner for industry and enterprise, Günter Verheugen, and the president of the high-level group for the reduction of the administrative burden, Edmund Stoiber, agreed, on Monday 19 November, on the configuration of the new group to receive a three-year mandate to assist the Commission in the implementation of the action plan (adopted by the March European Council) designed to reduce the administrative burden on enterprises in the EU by 2% between now and 2012. The high-level group for the reduction of the administrative burden is made up of 15 members, representing enterprises, SMEs, unions, NGOs and university and political circles. Apart from its president, the group is made up of: - Roland Berger (of the Roland Berger Management Consultancy) ; - Gabriel Carvalho Goucha (board of directors of the investment group Mirpuri and representing the Portuguese Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises PME Portugal); - Annika Fritsch (a specialist in the fields of taxation and company law); - Rick Hayhornthwaite (President of the British “Better Regulation” committee); - John Hontelez (Secretary General of the European Environment Bureau); - Robin Linschoten (President of the Dutch Bureau for the Reduction of the Administrative Burden); - Johannes Ludewig (Executive Director of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies); - Candido Mendez (Secretary-General of the General Union of Spanish Workers, UGT-E); John Murray (Director of the European Consumers' Organisation, BEUC); - Pierre Pere Padrosa (Vice-president of the International Road Transport Union); - Pekka Juhana Pesonen (Secretary-General of COPA-COGECA; - Jacques Potdevin (a chartered accountancy expert and auditor, and CEO of JPA); - Pavel Telicka (Senior Adviser at the European Policy Centre); - Riccardo Illy (President of the Italian Region Fiuli-Venezia-Giulia and of the Assembly of the Regions of Europe). (E.H.)