Luc Hendrickx

1
Simplification Doing business has to become
easier

• Luc Hendrickx
• Portorož 22 April 2005

2
Simplification do not simplify!

• Does not mean deregulation / liberalisation
• Less legislation is a myth !
• Broader objective Better regulation
• Rethink the whole regulatory process

3
Why better regulation?

• Reduce costs
• Competitiveness
• Better enforcement
• Attract foreign investment
• Close the  gap 

4
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. 

5
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

6
What is the problem?

• Regulations create red-tape and are (too) complex
• But there is morethe 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

7
Need for a Regulatory Management

• Three components
• Judicial and technical simplification
• Administrative relief
• Business Impact Assessments

8
1. Judicial and technical simplification (1)

• Simplification two aspects/views
• Modification of legislation without effecting the
  substance of the underlying policy
• 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

9
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.

10
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

11
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

12
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

13

14
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