On 18 March the Committee held and exchange of view with the chair of the high level group on administrative burdens, Dr Edmund Stoiber, concerning the main achievements and findings of the high level group and the future priorities in this domain. Dr Stoiber highlighted the political importance of cutting red tape in light of people's increasing frustration with the perceived over bloated bureaucracy of the EU. He further stressed the economic dimension and the potential to save costs for business and administration and to contribute to economic growth. Dr Stoiber cited two concrete examples: the acceptance by public administration of electronic invoices for VAT calculations amounting to cost savings for Europe's SME of over 5 billion EUR per year and the potential cost saving of up to 40 billion EUR, if all Member States actually fully transposed the EU's public procurement framework. Finally, Dr Stoiber argued in favour of a real policy shift in the EU, as outlined by the Commission president in his state of the union speech in September 2013, to think carefully about what really needs to be legislated at EU level and to place more emphasis on the quality of implementation by Member States.
The speech was followed by a lively exchange with IMCO members, who shared the sense of urgency on the need to cut red tape, highlighting the importance of impact assessments, quality transposition, institutional reform but cautioning against abusing the concept of "administrative burden reduction" to dismantle meaningful and important legislation, e.g. in the social sphere. The high-level group will present its final report in October 2014.
Source : © European Union, 2014 - EP