Commissioner of Economy and Administrative Simplification, is to be convinced that this time the European Commission’s attempt to reduce administrative charges is seriously. The skeptical question about why this time you have to believe the community executive when it ensures that their priority will be the reduction of administrative charges to companies appears as soon as the interview with a group of European journalists begins: “I would say that there is a need [de reducir cargas administrativas] more acute, more understanding between member states and among interested parties ,. We have to act to solve this problem and [reducir] Administrative burden is an important element in this task. ”
The “simplification”, as the European Commission calls him to avoid the expression “deregulation”, was already in the speeches on previous occasions, with and with the front of the community executive. Now, on the other hand, this Latvian continues that accumulates quinquenios in the halls of the EU capital – he has been commissioned twice before – the objectives are aligned and the commission has in the frontispiece of its action program the administrative load reduction . And this time, so that it is not a task of everyone and anyone, von der Leyen has commissioned Dombrovskis, one of his most confident people at the Colegio de Commissioners, who will lead this task in which he also has to involve the Rest of colleagues, according to the document this Wednesday, will have to evaluate twice a year the progress of the rules that concern them by consulting with the affected parties. The objective is to reduce the administrative load by 25% for companies in general and 35% in the case of SMEs. , that means lowering by 35,000 million euros a task that now consumes 150,000 million throughout the EU.
Although there is a greater demand than on previous occasions and the member states even speak of “revolution”, there is no consensus. Many voices have risen by warning that this “simplification” is, in reality, “a deregulation”, a reverse on what was done in the previous legislature to combat climate change: it was alerted by the social democrats a couple of weeks ago, the groups Ecologists, unions. It gives them arguments that the Commission has already promoted the delay for one year of the regulation against imported products made with wood from deforesting or wanting areas. “We have made it very clear from the beginning that we propose a simplification, not a deregulation. We are not abolishing our political objectives, including the objectives of Green Deal, such as neutrality in carbon emissions by 2050 and the 2030 objective of 55% emission reduction. We are looking for how we can get there with less costs and more efficiency, ”he says to reassure.
The program presented on Wednesday does not yet contemplate regulatory changes, nor the new category of SME announced, which is supposed to increase the thresholds of the current definition and, therefore, will free the companies that are included in it from administrative charges that now. The communication approved by the Colegio de Commissioners sets the lines of work for that “simplification” in the area of sustainability, says Dombrovskis. Then a second “on simplification in the investment will arrive, including [el programa] Invest Eu. The third will focus on small and medium enterprises and eliminate paperwork for companies. ”
All these good intentions are at a serious risk during the EU’s own legislative procedure, which during the negotiation, amendment and approval process by the two collegiate (EU council and European parliament) the directives and regulations move away of its initial objective: that simplification ends up being deregulation or walking in the opposite direction, more complexity, or that environmental standards are reduced. “It is true that in previous years, quite frequently, this has ended in more complications as the legislative process progressed. That is why we propose the need to carry out impact assessments of the substantial proposals or modifications that the schools introduce. Actually, this already exists in the inter -institutional pact on the improvement of the regulations. But it has not worked in practice. It has not worked in the case of the Council, they cannot use it once. They have not used transfers. They cannot use it at all. And in the case of Parliament, they can use it very rarely. So this is another aspect that in fact what matters is not just. ”
