Better Regulation: The Commission reviews its efforts to simplify EU legislation

Today, the Commission has published a review of the European Union’s efforts to simplify legislation and reduce regulatory burdens in 2018 in line with our commitment in the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making and as part of its Better Regulation Agenda.

The survey finds that, under the Regulatory fitness and performance (REFIT) programme, the current Commission has delivered more than 150 initiatives focused on simplifying legislation and reducing burdens. A recent example is a proposal to amend the current VAT rules where compliance costs for small businesses are expected to be reduced to €56.1 billion per year, an 18% reduction compared to the present situation. Under another Commission proposal for a single maritime window, savings are estimated at €625-720 million for shipping operators in the period 2020-2030. In 2018, the Commission also presented a set of proposals for the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework, which aim to significantly simplify procedures. Swift adoption by the European Parliament and Council of those proposals that are still pending will allow citizens, businesses and national authorities to benefit concretely from the proposed simplification measures.   In carrying out this review, the Commission was supported by the REFIT Platform which adopted a further 31 opinions in the twelve months to October 2018.  The review also presents how the Commission has responded to all 89 Platform opinions. Since 2017, an online scoreboard, updated on a quarterly-basis, tracks in detail the state of play of all REFIT-related activities. The survey is available online.