Competitiveness Council’s focus on Better Regulation good but not yet enough

EUROCHAMBRES welcomes the special focus on Better Regulation expressed in the conclusions of the Competitiveness Council, held in Brussels today, although more still remains to be done to reduce administrative burdens for companies in Europe.

EUROCHAMBRES especially appreciates the Council's call for action on the Impact Assessment system - with the needs of SMEs which seem to be more duly taken into account. The Council clearly recognises the need to increase the quality of the EU Impact Assessments through a greater use of measures which could help quantifying costs and benefits of legislative proposals on SMEs.

"This is firmly in line with the requests of the last Spring European Council," commented Arnaldo Abruzzini, Secretary General of EUROCHAMBRES. "We are however disappointed to see that less than two-thirds of Member States have set targets to reduce their national administrative burdens by 25% by 2012, as they had agreed to do back in 2007. We need greater commitment to a radical cut in red tape if we are to allow European businesses to spend more time generating wealth and jobs and less filling forms."

The 'Low' Level Group on Better Regulation - Concrete proposals already on the table

To stimulate action on the issue of Better Regulation, EUROCHAMBRES joined the SME Union and JADE in creating a 'Low' Level Group (LLG) to fight administrative burdens. The aim of the group, composed of experts as well as of real entrepreneurs, is to complement the work of the Commission's High Level Group with tangible ideas from the grassroots. After six months' work, the LLG is now ready to present a list of concrete proposals to reduce burdens and costs for SMEs.

These proposals will be presented at an open Press Conference in Brussels on 5 June.

The Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry represents over 19 million enterprises in Europe through members in 45 countries and a European network of 2000 regional and local Chambers.