13 EU countries call for 'deep cleaning' of European laws
Austria is leading a new alliance on regulatory simplification, pushing for a systematic review of how new rules would impact businesses and a "deep cleaning" of existing rules to be conducted during an "implementation and consolidation year."
Thirteen EU countries are urging the European Union to comprehensively review and potentially overhaul its existing legislation, aiming to enhance innovation and ensure the laws remain relevant and effective. The countries, including Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, and Slovakia, have signed a non-paper calling for a "legislative deep-cleaning" exercise.
This exercise would assess each sector to determine whether current rules are necessary, require updating, or impose unnecessary burdens. The Austrian-led paper emphasizes that EU legislation should not be an end in itself and stresses the importance of regulatory restraint to prevent over-regulation and excessive administrative burdens.
The non-paper was distributed ahead of the launch of a new alliance aimed at promoting regulatory simplification at both national and European levels. Regulatory simplification has been a key focus during Ursula von der Leyen's second term as European Commission President, leading to the proposal of various omnibus packages to streamline the EU's regulatory framework.
The 13 signatories propose that new EU laws should be systematically evaluated for their impact on economic competitiveness, with new regulations only pursued at the EU level if national measures are insufficient, adhering to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Additionally, the paper advocates for a "European Implementation and Consolidation Year," focusing on the implementation of existing legislation, simplification, interoperability, and the evaluation of cumulative burdens.
The ultimate goal is to ensure that EU-level legislation is enacted only when necessary and adds value, being proportionate, coherent, legally predictable, and supportive of a business environment conducive to investment, innovation, and growth. The signatories advocate for prioritizing high-quality, enforceable, and predictable legislation over regulatory density while maintaining protections for health, safety, and labor.
Every new reporting or compliance obligation should be preceded by a review of existing obligations within the same policy field to consolidate, simplify, or repeal as needed. Legislation should be judged based on its implementability, predictability, coherence with other laws, evidence-based approach, robustness, competitiveness enhancement, and respect for the split in competences between EU and national levels.
The paper stresses the importance of avoiding cumulative complexity that could undermine the effectiveness and legitimacy of EU action, as well as reducing the attractiveness of the EU Single Market as a place for business and investment.
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