– Simplification of EU law is an absolute precedence of the European Commission in the second word of president Ursula von der Leyen.
This is announced in our work plan, in our political priorities. The thought is to review existing legislation, identify barriers that may not be the most effective way to accomplish the target. For example, decarbonisation of the economy can be achieved in a simpler and better way for business – he explains in an interview with Newseria Przemysław Kalinka, an expert on economics of the European Commission Representation in Poland.
Some countries, including Poland, tend to overregulation with respect to what the EU Directive requires
Increasing bureaucracy discourages European companies from developing, especially as they face stricter regulations than their competitors in China and the US. 1 of the major barriers is the deficiency of consistency of government in the EU associate States, making it hard to exploit the possible of the Single Market. any countries, including Poland, tend to overregulation with respect to what the EU directives require.
In its work programme for 2025, the Commission announced that it would effort to destruct provisions which are unnecessary, disproportionate or a copy of others already in force. specified government makes it hard for European companies to operate.
Compasse of competitiveness
– We are motivated to release business energy, so that European companies, especially tiny and medium-sized enterprises, do not lose besides much resources to meet the requirements, they just truly focus on their key activities and drive the European economy, says Przemysław Kalinka.
The first of the papers presented by the EC on this issue is the Competitiveness Compasse, which sets the way for the EU to become the place where future technologies, services and clean products are invented and created, while at the same time the first climate neutral continent. It identifies 5 key drivers for competitiveness. These include a extremist simplification of regulatory and administrative burdens and a simplification of barriers to the Single Market, which has been a driver of competitiveness in Europe for 30 years. To improve its functioning in all industrial sectors, the horizontal Single marketplace strategy will modernise the governance framework, removing intra-EU barriers and preventing the creation of fresh barriers.
Not only EU law, but besides national implementation
The first package of deregulation, proposed by the EC at the end of February this year, deals, inter alia, with simplifications in reporting and another ESS obligations. The Commission has calculated that it can bring together savings in yearly administrative costs of around €6.3 billion and attract additional public and private investment capacity of €50 billion.
However, as experts note, the problem is not only EU law, but besides the implementation of government in individual countries.
Gold-plating
"Sometimes, associate States introduce additional, excessive obstacles to EU regulation as regards certain requirements or barriers to business. We call it gold-plating. It is crucial that erstwhile implementing EU law, the country, for example Poland, wonders whether it does not introduce any additional unnecessary obstacles – the expert on economics of the European Commission Representation in Poland points out. "Unfortunately, Poland is leading the way in introducing excessive regulation, citing EU regulations that de facto do not contain a given obligation. Then we must be very careful. This is the threat we see as the EC.
"We have quite a few barriers between countries and we do not have a single legal strategy within the EU, which makes us actually have 27 of these different systems. These barriers are a bit like we are imposing customs between countries – explains Andrzej Kubisiak, Deputy manager of the Polish economical Institute.
Trade barriers within the EU stay significant
The global Monetary Fund argues that the single marketplace is 1 of Europe's largest and most undervalued achievements, but its possible remains untapped, which hinders the improvement of the European and national economies. As indicated by the Fund in the "Europe's Choice: Policies for Growth and Resilience" report, intra-EU trade barriers stay crucial and correspond to a work equivalent of 44% on average for trade in goods (three times the trade barriers between US states) and 11% for services. Meanwhile, the EU's effective external rate of work is around 3%. Reducing these barriers could bring crucial benefits. According to an IMF analysis, the specified simplification of these barriers to intra-EU trade to US levels could consequence in an increase in productivity of almost 7 pp in the long term.
