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Main targets in reducing bureaucracy for SMEs are achieved

Eugene Eteris, European Studies Faculty, RSU, Riga, 15.10.2014.Print version
A special expert group (HLG/AB) advised the Commission on administrative burden reduction for entrepreneurs during last five years. The aim was to eliminate 25% of the administrative burdens 13 key areas. The results exceeded the initial targets: annual savings in the EU-28 are of about €33.4 billion, which represent an easing of the burden by 27%. The Commission praised the HLG/AB work.

The High Level Group on Administrative Burdens has been advising the Commission on the reduction of administrative burden for businesses since the end of 2007. It concentrates on how to simplify existing EU legislation and make the member states more efficient and more responsive to the needs of companies, particularly SMEs, when implementing EU legislation. With the help of the High Level Group, the Commission has actually exceeded its goal of reducing red tape for businesses by 25% in 13 key areas; annual savings estimated at €33.4 billion (-27%) have so far been achieved.


High Level Group on Administrative Burdens (HLG/AB)

The High Level Group was set up in late 2007 as an independent body to advise the Commission on the implementation of its reducing administrative burdens Action Program. The aim of the Action Program was to eliminate 25% of the administrative burdens resulting from EU regulations or the transposition of EU laws at national level, in 13 key areas by 2012. The Group's mandate was twice extended and broadened by the Commission (in August 2010 and December 2012). Its third mandate comes to an end on 31 October 2014.

 

The Group's support for the Commission included assistance in calculating administrative burden for businesses, incorporating the interests of companies and other stakeholders in the Action Program, and proposing further simplification measures.

 

During its second mandate (2010-12), the Group focused on achieving the transposition of EU law in the EU states in a way that was as un-bureaucratic as possible.

 

During its third mandate (2012-14), it is concentrated on the needs of SMEs and micro-enterprises through in the “optimization” of EU legislation transposition in the member states.


The group is chaired by Edmund Stoiber, a former Minister-President of Bavaria; it is made up of 15 members, chosen for their expertise. All these members carry out their duties on a voluntary basis.

 

Additional information about the HLG AB and its members can be found on the Group's website and in the Register of Commission Expert Groups (a full list of members is seen below).


HLG/AB’s achievements

The Commission has made a success of its Action Program for reducing administrative burdens for businesses in the EU: altogether, the adopted measures at EU level have enabled businesses to make estimated annual savings in the EU-28 of about €33.4 billion, which represents an easing of the burden by 27%. The Commission has therefore exceeded its ambitious savings target of 25%, set in the initial Action Program.

 

Edmund Stoiber and the members of the Group were of great help to the Commission in this respect. In particular, the Group supported the Commission in its successful negotiations with the Council and Parliament on the two most important Commission proposals on the reduction of red tape (in particular, in VAT e-invoicing, which could save businesses up to €18 billion), and a proposal to exempt micro-enterprises from accounting rules, which could result in €6.3 billion in savings. The Commission has in addition also taken up and implemented many more of the Group's ideas for further administrative burden reduction measures.

 

The Group during 54 meetings adopted over 45 opinions and reports. The subjects covered by the opinions have included administrative burden reduction measures in all 13 priority areas of the Action Program (such as tax law, accounts, statistics, transport, and public procurement). They originate with several hundred suggestions by the Commission's departments, individual enterprises or business associations, national, regional and local governments or individual citizens. The most significant event of the second mandate was the 'Europe can do better' report (IP/12/146), which set out best practice in the Member States on implementing EU legislation in the least burdensome way.

 

During its third mandate, the Group conducted case studies on selected examples of the transposition into national law of eight simplification measures from the Action Program, as the benefits of EU measures for easing the administrative burden are only felt by those they are intended to help if they are transposed successfully into national law.

 

In October 2014 the Group published its final report and presented it to the Commission; the report also contains wide-ranging recommendations for future improvements in reducing bureaucracy.


The outcomes of the 'Stoiber Group'

The Commission's 2007 Action Program was aimed at reducing the administrative burden by 25% at EU level. Now it is up to the EU member states to ensure that businesses actually feel the benefits, by transposing the burden reduction measures into national law in the most effective and un-bureaucratic way possible and by applying them rigorously: studies carried out in connection with the Action Program have shown that 32% of administrative costs are due not to the demands of EU law itself, but to its being transposed in the member states in a way that is inefficient or that goes beyond the requirements of EU law ('gold-plating').

 

To this end, the exchange of experiences among the EU member states regarding the national transposition of EU laws must be significantly improved.

 

The Group's report shows that implementation of the Action Program has led to substantial progress in many areas, although the EU states were not always able to put a figure on it. This progress was apparent in, among other things, the simplification of the accounting principles for SMEs, acceptance of e-invoices for value added tax, and intra-Community trade statistics. More savings can be made if the EU states continue to implement the reduction measures consistently. In doing so they should make good use of all the simplification options provided for by the relevant EU law.

 

See the Action Program at: COM (2009) 544. Action Program for Reducing Administrative Burdens in the EU, Sectoral Reduction Plans and 2009 Actions, p. 6.


Stoiber Group's final recommendations in reducing bureaucracy

The independent group's final report contains a number of recommendations for improving legislation and cutting red tape addressed both to the EU Institutions and to the Member States. These recommendations include the setting of a firm target for administrative savings, the creation of an independent body of experts to review impact assessments on the administrative costs of Commission legislative proposals, concentration of the Commission's work on the most important questions that have to be resolved at EU level and on the needs of small and medium-sized undertakings, and more rapid and better information on European legislation.

 

The final report has been published in several languages on the High Level Group's website.


For further information see:

= The High Level Group's website (which includes the final report):

http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/refit/admin_burden/high_level_group_en.htm

= the Commission's website on smart regulation:

http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/index_en.htm

= the Commission's website on administrative burden reduction:

http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/refit/admin_burden/index_en.htm

= MEMO/13/786: 'Commission initiatives to cut red-tape and reduce regulatory burden – Questions and Answers'

= All relevant documents on the Group's activities, such as agendas and minutes of meetings, presentations, reports and opinions, including dissenting opinions, are published on the HLG AB's website: 

http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/refit/admin_burden/high_level_group_en.htm.


Annex: High Level Group on Administrative Burdens (List of members)

Stoiber Edmund (DE), Chair of the High Level Group, Former Minister-President of Bavaria; Almgren Gunilla (SE), President of the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (UEAPME); Berger Roland (DE), Honorary Chairman of the Board of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants; Carvalho Goucha Gabriel Côrte-Real de (PT), Member of the Portuguese Parliament, General Counsel of the Mirpuri Investments Group, Vice President for Institutional and International Relations of PME Portugal (an association of SMEs); Casado Navarro-Rubio Jesús (ES), Secretary-General of European Family Businesses; Gibbons Michael (UK), Chairman of the Regulatory Policy Committee in the UK and Chairman of the Regulatory Policy Committee in the UK; Kosinska Monika (PL/UK), Secretary-General of the European Public Health Alliance; LEITÃO Marques Maria Manuel (PT), Professor of the School of Economics at the University of Coimbra; former Secretary of State for Administrative Modernisation; Ludewig Johannes (DE), Chairman of the German National Regulatory Control Council; Murray Jim (IE), Former Director of the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC); Pessonen Pekka (FI), Secretary-General of the umbrella organisations COPA (European Farmers) and COGECA (European Agri-Cooperatives); Secretary-General of the umbrella organisations COPA (European Farmers) and COGECA (European Agri-Cooperatives); Renshaw Nina (UK), Deputy Director Transport & Environment; Executive of ECOS (European Environmental Citizens' Organisation for Standardisation); RØnne MØller Heidi (DK), EU Adviser of the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions;  Starczewska-Krzysztoszek Małgorzata (PL), Head of Department of Research and Economic Analyses of the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (Lewiatan); Member of the Economic Council at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland; Ten Hoopen Jan (NL), Chair of ACTAL - the Dutch Advisory Board on Regulatory Burden. 

 

Reference: European Commission, MEMO/14/574 “High Level Group on Administrative Burdens: Questions and Answers”, 14 October 2014, in:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-14-574_en.htm 






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