SECTOR

Finance

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

European Parliament and Council Directive 2004/39/EC Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments (MiFID) and the upcoming Commission proposals for level 2 directives and regulations.

Summary

MiFID and especially the current CESR advice and Commission document regarding technical implementing measures should be simplified. The rule on pretrade information for systematic internalisers in article 27 is too detailed and should be subject to a cost/benefit analysis. Other issues that the Commission currently is working at as regards level 2 measures leads to unnecessary administrative burdens and cost for instance the question of voice recording of telephone order.

Need for simplification

Level 2 measures should recognise and distinguish between different market structures and business models. Consideration should be taken to differences in scale, nature and complexity of business. The level of detail in the advice/proposals for level 2-measures is too extensive.
We fear that the amount of information that CESR advice to be provided to clients would damage the clients’ ability to form a general view of how the market functions and how to invest rather than provide the necessary transparency and general view. It should be ensured that information provided to clients could be standardised. 

Proposal for simplification

It should be possible to standardise information provided to clients

Only telephone lines dedicated to the receipt of orders should be voice recorded

Article 27 should be less detailed. It should be reviewed whether the purpose of pre-trade transparency is really obtained by article 27 and the current proposals for technical implementing measures.

SECTOR

Finance

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Danish Financial Supervisory Authority

Legislation

Proposal for a regulation on payer's information accompanying credit transfers and transfers sent by money remitters

Summary

Adopting of different thresholds for incoming and outgoing transfers and thresholds, which furthermore are not worldwide, but differs depending on the country of origin.

Need for simplification

Proposal for simplification

Adopting of a worldwide threshold is strongly recommended in order to avoid that the banks must register and update the thresholds adopted in all the different countries of the world.

SECTOR

Finance

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Danish Financial Supervisory Authority

Legislation

Proposal for a directive on A New Legal Framework for Payments in the Internal Market

Summary

The proposal constitutes unnecessary detailed regulation in areas of different payment instruments.

Need for simplification

Proposal for simplification

1) Rules concerning transparency (information relating to a payment service contract or a payment transaction) are redundant as the information requirements are already stated in Directive on cross border transactions (97/5/EF). 2) The proposed rules on the execution of a payment transaction differ from the existing market-practice in Danish payment transactions. It will lead to increased costs of complying with the requirements without any benefits.

SECTOR

Finance

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Taxation

Legislation

Sixth Council Directive (77/388/EEC) of 17 May 1977

Summary

The VAT legislation concerning the financial sector needed to be updated and revise to achieve a more simple system with more legal certainty and VAT-neutrality.

Need for simplification

Concerning the financial sector the application of VAT across the EU is inconsistent. There is a need for revise and update the definition of VAT exempted services and transaction (art. 13(B)(d)).  

When it comes to financial groups operating in more than one EU-country VAT very often prevent their opportunity to cooperate, integrate and centralize their functions – concerning the financial sector there is a need for a more VAT neutral system. Any attempt to achieve synergies and improve efficiency is blocked due to the cascading effect of VAT.

Proposal for simplification

The European Banking Federation has made a proposal for updating the directive (enclosed)

SECTOR

Finance

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Proposal for a Directive on money laundering, including terrorist financing – 5556/05 rev 1.

Summary

The proposal for a directive should be reviewed with regard to simplification. It imposes quite many requirements on banks, which generally speaking are too burdensome and costly to comply with in proportion to the purpose of the directive.

Need for simplification

The provisions of customer due diligence are comprehensive and burdensome and could be simplified without compromising with the overall purpose of the directive. The provisions concerning identification of beneficial owners are unclear and burdensome for the employees to manage. The provisions of politically exposed persons are unclear with regard to the definition of such persons and complicated to manage in term of identifying the persons in question. Politically exposed persons should be limited to a (predefined) specific group of people leaving as little judgement as possible on the employees.

Proposal for simplification

SECTOR

Finance

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Directive 2002/92/EC on insurance mediation

Summary

The directive should be reviewed with regard to simplification, especially regarding the registration requirements and the use of criminal records.

Need for simplification

For instance, when a bank – being an insurance mediation – is registered with the cooperating insurance company, art 3, it seems administratively burdensome and too excessive that also the persons within the management who are responsible for the mediation business. The requirement in art 4 according to which the management and any staff directly involved in insurance mediation shall provide a clean police record and be subject to current surveillance on this issue is also administratively burdensome. The fulfilment of the principle of “good repute” should be left to the banks and should not be based on a general requirement of providing a clean police record, unless where there is reason for that.

Proposal for simplification

SECTOR

Finance

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Directive 2000/12/EC on credit institutions

Summary

Need for simplification

Proposal for simplification

Art 16 on supervisory approval process concerning qualifying holdings in credit institutions should be subject to mutual recognition between member States.

SECTOR

Finance

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Directive 2000/12/EC on credit institutions

Summary

Need for simplification

The definition of financial institutions in Art 1 (5) also includes Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities (UCITS). This has as a consequence that investments made by credit institutions in UCITS are weighted 100 pct (solvency ratio) according to art. 43 without regard to the underlying investments made by the UCITS. These investments may for instance consist of government bonds with weight 0. It is felt unreasonable especially with regard to the deduction rules in art. 34 (12) and (13) that investments in UCITS made by credit institutions exceeding some thresholds of ten pct. always have weight 100 although the underlying investments have a lower weight.

Proposal for simplification

SECTOR

Finance

Ministry responsible

Ministery of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Proposal for a Directive on Capital Adequacy of investment firms and credit institutions (COM(2004) 486

Summary

Reporting for banks

Need for simplification

Regarding the drafts regarding accounting and Capital adequacy from CEBS: FINREP and COREP needs a fundamental change. The amount of information need to be reduced and harmonized, so internationally operating banks don’t need to report different information to different supervisions.

Proposal for simplification

SECTOR

Finance

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Proposal for a Directive on Capital Adequacy of investment firms and credit institutions (COM(2004) 486

Summary

Reporting for banks

Need for simplification

National discretion in Capital Adequacy regulation should be avoided, and further attention to this is a must.

Proposal for simplification

SECTOR

Finance

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Justice

Legislation

Directive 2002/65EF of 23 September 2002 concerning the distance marketing of consumer financial services.

Summary

The directive on distance marketing of consumer financial services has been implemented in Denmark since 1 October 2004. Therefore Danish banks have already experienced that the rules concerning information requirements to the consumer in the case of voice telephony communications are very burdensome.

Need for simplification

The rules in article 3, section 3 in the case of voice telephone communications are all too complicated. The supplier (the bank) has to give the following information:

- the identity of the supplier

- the commercial purpose of the call

- the identity of the person in contact with the consumer

- a description of the main characteristics of the financial service

- the total price to be paid by the consumer to the supplier for the financial service including all taxes paid via the supplier

- notice of the possibility that other taxes and/or costs may exist that are not paid via the supplier or imposed by him

- the existence or absence of a right of withdrawal

It is not possible in practice to give all that information when using voice telephone communication and these rules should therefore be simplified.

Proposal for simplification

The rules concerning voice telephone communication when offering consumers financial services could be simplified with due respect that the supplier in every case shall provide the full information (all the information mentioned in article 3, section 1, 2 and 3) if a contract has been concluded using voice telephony communication (see article 3, section 3 in fine referring to article 5) and that the consumer has a right of withdrawal from the contract. On these grounds it should be enough that the supplier is obliged at the beginning of any conversation with the consumer to mention the identity of the supplier.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Directive 2002/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 November 2002 concerning life assurance

Summary

The directive imposes, among other things, several information obligations on the companies.

 

Need for simplification

In a number of areas it would be possible to simplify the rules so that the information required, to a higher degree than today, reflects the needs of the customer. This also implies the possibility of applying means of digital communication, for example presenting information relevant to the customers at the internet. Besides simplification along these lines would considerably reduce the administrative burden for the companies.

 

Proposal for simplification

Art. 36, 1. - " Before the assurance contract is concluded, at least the information listed in Annex III(A) shall be communicated to the policy holder"

The directive requires that the company communicate a number of information to the policy holder before conclusion of the insurance contract.

The Danish Insurance Association proposes that the requirement for information  before conclusion of the contract is replaced by a requirement for information in connection with the conclusion of the contract.

The important thing is to make sure that the information is communicated to the policy holder at the time when he needs the information, at the latest, for example when the policy holder is to make certain choices or back off from the contract. Furthermore, in certain insurance schemes, not least schemes where membership of the scheme is made mandatory by another contract, it is often not possible to fulfil the requirement for communication of the information before conclusion of the contract as the policy holder is enrolled in the scheme before the insurance company obtains knowledge of the policy holder's identity. The insurance company may for example not be informed on the policy holder's enrolment until the first premium payment.

Art 36, stk. 2 - " The policy-holder shall be kept informed throughout the term of the contract of any change concerning the information listed in Annex III(B)"

The Danish Insurance Association proposes that the directive is amended so that the required time for notification of the policy holder of changes is determined by the importance of the change for the policy holder.

In cases of less important changes, for example changes not concerning essential parts of the contract, the company should be allowed to postpone the communication of the information and include it in a broader publishing at a later point in time.

 

Annex III - demand for written information

The Danish Insurance Association finds that the companies should be entitled to fulfil the demand for written information by making the information available at the company's website. A company should be able to assume that communication from company to customer has a digital form even if there is no specific agreement on this. However, the customer should be able to, on request, have the information in paper (active request), unless the information concerns pure web–based products. 

The company's digital communication must live up to certain basic principles. Among other things, confidentiality of personal information must be secured and it must be assured that the company has not subsequently changed the information.

Bilag III.A.a.16 - information on law applicable to the contract

The Danish Insurance Association only sees a need for informing the policy holder on law if other regulation than Danish law applies.

Annex III.B. - during the term of the contract

The Danish Insurance Association is of the opinion that there should be no obligation for the company to inform the policy holder on both changes in relation to the assurance undertaking and changes in the insurance commitment. If digital communication is used it should be sufficient to present such information at the company's website (that is, no requirement for actively forwarding the information to the customer). Furthermore, information on insurance undertakings is not pivotal to the insurance contract and thus this information should only be made available when the customer is in need of this information.

Bilag III.B.3. - yearly information on the state of bonus

The Danish Insurance Association finds that it should be sufficient continuously to make information on the state of bonus available at the internet. There is no need also to forward the information to the policy holder annually. 

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Directive 2002/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2002 concerning the distance marketing of consumer financial services

 

Summary

The directive imposes very detailed information obligations which the companies must fulfil when performing distance marketing of consumer financial services (telephone sales etc.). The directive is implemented in Danish law by amendments to the consumer contracts law and the insurance contracts law.

Need for simplification

In order to fulfil the rules the companies must give the consumers a lot of different information regardless of whether the consumers have any use of these information. Furthermore, the rules do not render possible targeting relevant information to the individual consumer's needs.

Proposal for simplification

The Danish Insurance Association proposes that the rules are reconsidered so that the companies may fulfil the information requirements by making the information available for the customers at the company's website. Hence, each customer may seek the information he desires. Perhaps, the company must be obliged to, when marketing its products, inform the customer that he may find relevant information at the website.     

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

The Ministry of Justice

Legislation

Directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (95/46/EC)

Summary

Need for simplification

Proposal for simplification

The Danish Insurance Association proposes that the directive shall be re-examined. In the light of the development of the technology, the general exchange of information in the society of today and the costumer's general opinion on what data can be processed, stored and exchanged, the directive in general appears to be too restrictive.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Directive 2002/92/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 9 December 2002 on insurance mediation.

Summary

Intermediaries (Tied agents) who only carry on the activity of insurance mediation under the full responsibility of one or more insurance companies should not be subject to registration requirements like independent intermediaries who act on their own behalf and under their own full responsibility.

Need for simplification

When intermediaries act under the full responsibility of one or more insurance companies there is no need for consumer protection in the form of a registration system. Insurance companies, which are fully responsible and to which consumers can refer if an intermediaries do not act correctly, will not allow their products to be sold by intermediaries who do not act in a proper way.  In Denmark insurance companies must register their agents name e.g., and the name of a person responsible for intermediation at the agent. They must update the register 4 times a year at least and every year they must send a declaration to the supervisory authorities on the updating. The agent must send a declaration to the insurance company with the same information as in the register but also on education on clean police records and declare that no one is declared bankrupt.   

Proposal for simplification

Intermediaries (Tied agents) who only carry on the activity of insurance mediation under the full responsibility of one or more insurance companies should not be subject to registration requirements like independent intermediaries who act on their own behalf and under their own full responsibility.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Legislation

Increasing levels of information required in the accounts

Summary

Need for simplification

There is an ongoing pressure for releasing more and more information in the statutory accounts. Information - for policyholders, the public, investors and other interested parties - is, of course, considered useful, but any marginal additional information does not neccessarily add value. Increasing the level of information, the details of information and demanding more frequent release of information does not always increase transparency. On the contrary, in the context of the often long term nature of the underlying insurance business, releasing more and more information might not be meaningful and might actually leave the end user more confused than enlightened.

Proposal for simplification

Therefore, there is scope for reducing the administrative burdens of producing more information to the statutory accounts while actually yielding a benefit to end users of insurance company accounts.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Legislation

EU procedures for approval of IFRS

Summary

Quoted companies are required by EU regulation to apply International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS (issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, IASB) to their consolidated accounts. However, only those IFRS's which have been approved by the EU Commission, fall under the scope of this regulation.

Need for simplification

The abovementioned procedure is burdensome as revealed by the problems encountered with the revised IAS 39. This standard - like most IFRS's - is being revised in a time consuming and complex process. However, once finalised by the IASB, it was only partially approved by the EU Commission. Therefore, it had to be adjusted again by the IASB in very short time before it became applicable under the EU regulation. As a matter of fact, companies were for a time being not in a position to decide which version of IAS 39 was to be followed.

This creates tension and administrartive burdens is put upon companies. The rules to be followed must be known well in advance before the rules become applicable. So the procedure for the EU Commission to adopt IFRS must be improved.

Proposal for simplification

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Legislation

The deposit floor in the life directives

Summary

As is probably well known, the Danish life insurance accounting rules are based upon market valuation of both assets and liabilities. On the liability side, this implies that the portfolio of commitments must be valued taking into account that policyholders might make use of any surrender options. The key word is portfolio. Companies estimate the probability of contracts being terminated at a portfolio basis, consistent with a market value approach.

However, the Danish supervisor recently has claimed that the use of a portfolio approach contradicts the rules and stipulations of the life insurance directives. The supervisor claims that a deposit floor must be applied to each contract. However, insurance is different from banking and the deposit floor approach on a contract by contract basis is not consistent with the market value approach which in many other cases is considered worth trying to establish.

Need for simplification

If the portfolio approach is in fact deemed in conflict with existing EU regulation this will force administrative burdens upon life insurance companies which must change their accounting practices - and, more importantly, burdens will arise because the Danish market value accounting principles, which are considered a key example for others to follow, might be impossible to withhold.

Proposal for simplification

Therefore, in case the Danish supervisor is right in its interpretation of the relevant directive, then this must be changed, allowing for a portfolio consideration when considering the effect of surrender options in the accounting rules.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Legislation

Non-discounting of deferred taxes according to IAS 12

Summary

The Danish local accounting rules have recently been changed in order to become compatible with IFRS. However, because IAS 12 on Income Taxes (as approved by the EU Commission, hence part of EU regulation) does not allow for the discounting of deferred taxes, there is a need to make an exemption from IAS 12 on this issue in the local accounting rules for insurance.

Need for simplification

The abovementioned exemption from IAS 12 will be administrative burdensome for companies which must apply IFRS to their consolidated accounts. Different rules might have to be followed on company and consolidated level.

Proposal for simplification

Thus, there is an urgent need to update IAS 12 to allow for the discounting of deferred taxes, not least in the context of the principle of market valuation gaining ground in the international accounting standards.

Ministry responsible

The Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Regulation concerning antidumping

Summary

The objective of the antidumping rules is to protect against price dumping, which means that a country’s exporters deliberately sell their goods on another country’s market at a price that is lower than on the home market. Thus, the purpose of antidumping duty is to maintain fair competition in trade.

Need for simplification

Antidumping is one of the most generally used tools among legal and protective measures.  The number of antidumping investigations has increased significantly since the 1990s. The rules must be changed so that antidumping measures are limited only to cases where it is an established fact that dumping takes place.

Proposal for simplification

Antidumping measures should be limited to cases where it is an established fact that dumping takes place with a view to achieving market power, i.e. in cases where the dumping enterprise already has a dominant position. It could be done in antidumping cases by making use of a number of the conditions that are used in competition cases. In addition, it must be a precondition that analyses of the costs and gains of introducing antidumping duty are carried out, in order to ensure that the measures are not exclusively in favour of the producers. The measures must also take the consumers and the enterprises utilising the products into consideration.

For further information please contact:

Mr Peter Thagesen, DI International. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3752.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

The Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

The National Agency for Enterprise and Construction

Legislation

1334/2000/EC Control of exports of dual-use items and technology.

Summary

The revision is enforced by UN 15-45. The objective of the control of dual-use items and technology is to ensure that the products are not used for military or terrorist purposes.

Need for simplification

Control list is too long and outdated (controls massmarketed technologies, whilst other strategically relevant technologies remain uncontrolled).

Proposal for simplification

In implementing the convention the EU should not interpret it in a stricter sense than other countries. Further the Commission should pay much attention to what is actually possible to control and implement the controlsystem in a fashion there is less bureaucratic for the private businesses. One should bear in mind that controlling EU import in many respects will be futile, as the products already exists within the EU.

The Commission should be cautious about implementing a control system of transport of dual-use products as such a system would be very costly and bureaucratic. At the same time the system will not be very effective in controlling the actual transport.

For further information please contact:

Ms Marianne Castenskiold, DI International. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3764.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Statistics Denmark

Legislation

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1901/2000, Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 and Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 2256/92

Intrastat

Summary

EU trade statistics covering all goods (in details) crossing national borders within the Internal Market.

Need for simplification

Danish studies have revealed that Intrastat statistics accounts for 3/4 of the total statistical burden on companies (AMVAB, sep. 2004). The total burden caused by Intrastat on Danish companies has been estimated to 17 mio. euro/year. Especially Intrastat Import is burdensome, accounting for totally 2/3 of the total statistic burdens in Denmark.

Proposal for simplification

When a company in one country exports to another company in another EU country the export is reported to Intrastat Export, and the import is reported to Intrastat Import. Thus the same transaction is reported to the statistical bureaus twice, so called Mirror Statistics. Therefore one of the reports should be abolished and instead for control reason substituted by reports from the exporting country's statistical bureau. For each individual European company the reporting of sales/exports of the company's own product(s) self evidently is much easier than reporting of the wide range of raw materials, intermediary products and other inputs, which the company acquires/imports and with which the company has no specialized knowledge of. The main part of the problem stem from information gathering when the invoice does not contain or is unclear about the required information. Therefore the reporting of imports is especially burdensome for companies.

In each EU country statistics on exports are considered more precise than statistics on imports. Exchange of export statistics among statistical bureaus could improve the quality of trade statistics, avoid asymmetries between exports and imports and reduce the administrative burden of companies dramatically. Export statistics are superior to import statistics with respect to reliability and administrative burden on companies. Thus the best way to proceed would be to drop statistics based on imports and 'recycle' export statistics among member states. 

For further information please contact:

Mr Klaus Rasmussen, DI's Department for Business Economy. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3908.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Statistics Denmark

Legislation

Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 on the statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.

Summary

Concerning the statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States.

Need for simplification

The nomenclatures in Intrastat, Extrastat and Prodcom are not similar, two measures of quantity (net mass in kg, and secondary measure like litres or pieces) are required for trading information on some goods, the observation percentage and frequency is too high as well as the numbers of categories. This causes too high administrative burdens for companies.

The number of categories should be reduced considerably. There should not be more than 10 categories each, so that it is easy for the enterprises to cope with.

Proposal for simplification

It is of the greatest importance that the nomenclature in Intrastat, Extrastat and Prodcom are standardized.

The measures of quantity should be made meaningful, and as far as possible it should repealed since measuring the weight often cause big difficulties to the companies. Furthermore it is of greatest importance that the measures of quantity are made similar in Intrastat, Extrastat and Prodcom.

The observation percentage and frequency of the reporting should be reduced.

For further information please contact:

Mr Klaus Rasmussen, DI's Department for Business Economy. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3908.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Statistics Denmark

Legislation

Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 58/97 concerning structural business statistics

Summary

All enterprises contribute information toward the structural business statistics.

Need for simplification

Many of the small enterprises have a minimal effect on the content of the overall statistics.

There is required too many and partially overlapping statistics.

Proposal for simplification

Member states should have the option to make small enterprises (with less than 20 employees) exempt from statistical information requirements, since the small enterprises have a minimal effect on the content of the overall statistics.

Some of the statistics should be dropped, and the rest should be reorganised to cover the necessary data. This reorganisation should also include Intrastat and the structural statistics statutory instrument.

For further information please contact:

Mr Klaus Rasmussen, DI's Department for Business Economy. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3908.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

1997/0356/COD Harmonization of legal protection of patents.

Summary

Harmonization of legal protection of patents.

Need for simplification

The current system is expensive and inadequate. A patent in the EU is three times as costly as a patent in Japan- and five times the price of a patent in the USA. The high costs are largely a result of translation demands.

Proposal for simplification

DI suggests:

-           That it should be possible to attain a patent in the EU by one application.

-           That the demands of translation is reduced as much as possible.

-           A central European court of patents is established. This will ensure a common practice and will mean a concentration of the best qualifications.

For further information please contact:

Ms Tine Roed, DI's Department of Tax and Legal Affairs. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3561.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

The Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

87/404/EEC Laws of the Member States relating to simple pressure vessels.

Summary

Harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to simple pressure vessels.

Need for simplification

According to the Commission the process of conformity assessment is too complicated compared to 97/23/EC. Approach of existing legislation (87/404) is not corresponding.

Proposal for simplification

The Commission proposes to incorporate 87/404/EC into 97/23/EC.

DI can not support the proposal. 87/404 is working quite well for the companies. 97/23 on the other hand is very complicated to understand and has posed more demanding burdens on the private companies. After a long procedure of adaptation the directives work well today and to integrate the two directives would create more problems and administrative burden for the industry and increase costs.

At the same time 97/23 is not fully implemented, officials are still working on interpretations and the companies are still in a process of learning. The practical experiences for commencing a revision are for these reasons not present.

For further information please contact: 

Ms Annette Dragsdahl, DI's European Affairs. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3844.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

78/855/EEC, 89/667/EEC, 2000/46/EC, 95/46EC and 2001/107/EC

Summary

Regulation concerning company law

Need for simplification

Contradictions in directives and too many administrative burdens for the private enterprises.

Proposal for simplification

DI supports the proposals for simplification

For further information please contact: 

Mr Jens Valdemar Krenchel, DI's Department of Tax and Legal Affairs. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3407.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

 Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Council Directive 89/106 of 21 December 1988 Construction Product Directive (CPD)

Summary

The Directive needs an amendment to speed up its effective application and to resolve application problems or misuses which have been noted

Need for simplification

See "Summary" above.

Proposal for simplification

CE-marking should be compulsory for those construction products under the scope of a harmonised European Norm and for which the CE-marking transitional period has ended.

A transparent procedure to designate the notified bodies (NB) and approval bodies (EOTA) and evaluate their competence (e.g. by using accreditation) on a common basis.

EOTA should only address regulatory aspects.

The application for an (ETAG) and a CUAP should not force other manufacturers of the same product family to start using CE-marking for their products.

The systems of attestation of conformity should be simplified.

The main basic terms used  in the Directive should be clearly defined. "Construction product", "non-series product", "kit", "market", etc.

For further information please contact

Mr. Jens Nørgaard. E-mail: [email protected] or phone +45 3377 3376.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Employment

Legislation

Directive 90/394/EEC Protection of workers from the risk related to exposure to carcinogens at work and extending it to mutagens

Summary

Regards the protection of workers from the risk related to exposure to carcinogens at work and extending it to mutagens

Need for simplification

The directive leaves its mark on the fact that it was prepared at a time where the focus was based on the toxicity class of the drugs and not on the evaluation of the risks, and where the thoughts were aiming towards an establishment of protection- strategies/preparations, towards the "traditionally" very dangerous chemical drugs.

Due to the fact that wooden dust from the hard woods was subjugated the directive, a need for efficient interpretations of the directives decisions to avoid the unintentional substitutions from the hard woods. Similar situations can be expected to appear in the future.

Proposal for simplification

The assessment is, that there is a well-marked need for a radical revision of the directive. As a model for the prospective regulation, the principles of the current Danish regulation can be recommended. In Denmark the regulations are based on fundamental decisions which are existing for the entire area supplied by a number of special demands which in variation of extents can be used towards single drugs or groups of drugs.

For further information please contact:

Mr Anders Just Pedersen, DI's Department for Work Environment. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3686.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of the Environment

Legislation

Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15. July 1975 on waste

Summary

The directive on waste contains an unclear distinction between recycling and waste. Inconsistent use of terminology and annex does not include all reuse and disposal methods.

Need for simplification

The unclear definition and distinction between different waste handling options lead to bureaucratic handling of waste related questions at local and governmental level. This is especially true for the area import/export of waste.  For methods not mentioned in the annexes to the directive it is extremely time consuming for the industries to obtain permission or approval from the municipalities and the EPA.

Proposal for simplification

It should be clearly underlined that the waste hierarchy is only advisory, and that in specific cases other handling options may be the best solution from as well an environmental as a cost-benefit analytical point of view.

The annex II A and B should be rewritten, so they are not closed lists, but rather broad conditions for the treatment technologies in the various categories. The effect of this will be a must smoother administration for industries and municipalities, and the possibility to direct waste for the optimal treatment environmentally. E.g. incineration with heat and power production may be more optimal than recycling with long transports and limited benefits for the environment.

For further information please contact:

Mr Jens Ulrik Jensen, DI's Environmental Department. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3686.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of the Environment

Legislation

Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24. September 1996 concerning Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC).

Summary

The directive on ICCP has caused bureaucracy to a degree that is out of proportion with the environmental benefits.

Need for simplification

The implementation of the IPPC scheme has become overly bureaucratic in a number of areas. Overlaps between IPPC, EIA, EMAS as well as a number off sector-specific directives result in unnecessary bureaucracy.

Extensive measurement programmes are required under the current legislation.

Environmentally insignificant changes to installations often require a formal application to the environmental authorities. Though this has no environmental benefit, it still entails significant bureaucracy.

The list of installations in annex is partially unclear and covers installations with environmental impacts that are insignificant or do not require an integrated approach.

This causes unnecessary administration and too large differences in the implementation of the directive among member states.

Companies with an environmental certification in accordance with ISO14001 find little acknowledgement of this voluntary effort in the regulation. IPPC should hold incentives for companies to seek environmental certification.

Proposal for simplification

The relationship of IPPC with EIA, EMAS as well as a number off sector-specific directives needs to be resolved.

Principles for assessing the needed amount of measuring should be included in the directive. The revised directive should also envisage a possibility for replacing direct measurements of emissions with verified calculations based on operating parameters such as load, temperature etc.

The directive needs to define clearly a lower threshold limit for when changes to installations require an application to the environmental authorities.

The list of installations in annex needs to be revised and clarified.

Requirements in IPPC should be reduced for EMAS or ISO14001 certified installations.

For further information please contact:

Mr Jens Ulrik Jensen, DI's Environmental Department. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3686.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of the Food, Agriculture and Fisheries

Legislation

200/13/EC The laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs

Summary

In the field of food legislation 90% of the legislation originates from the European Union. In his conclusions to the Round Tables on Agriculture and Food, former Commissioner Byrne announced that the Commission would launch a process of evaluation of the labelling legislation with a view to its simplification and modernisation.

The Community’s current legal basis for food labelling is defined in Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 March 2000 on the

approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs. This Directive codified the earlier Directive 79/112/EC that established general requirements for food labelling, applicable to all foodstuffs and pre-packaged food.

Need for simplification

The challenge is how to diminish burdens on industry while maintaining the high level of information and protection of the consumer.

European industry and consumers’ organization both call the current label into question; it appears that it bears too much information. Since the introduction of the labelling directive, the amount of information on the label has increased considerably. For those consumers that need specific information, it may be more convenient if they could find more information in an easy way. It does not seem realistic to expect that the need for information about food is reducing in the future. In relation to the increased knowledge about food and individualisation of the consumer, the demand for specific information by consumers is increasing.

However, any discussion of a review of the EU labelling legislation being relevant in a Europe of 25, soon 27, has to take into account three core elements of all food labelling legislation, namely consumer information, consumer education and user needs with regard to practicability/feasibility. Those core elements of the discussion are interlinked and should be regarded in conjunction.

Proposal for simplification

Consumer information

The food industry is committed to providing responsible consumer information. Labelling is the most important way of communicating with the consumer. More recently other means of consumer information have been promoted to offer more detailed information off pack and DI considers this should be recognised in the review process given the complexity of the legislative provisions and limited label space. Labelling, especially mandatory labelling is only one of many ways of ensuring consumer information. Offpack consumer information has throughout the last years become an essential tool for consumer information and needs to be respected as such by legislators.

Consumer information interests can accordingly be served on and off pack and the food industry urges stakeholders to respect all routes of consumer information when reviewing mandatory labelling legislation – all consumer interests can certainly not be satisfied through mandatory labelling.

Consumer education

Consumer education is essential to make best use of the information provided by manufacturers. A joint effort is needed in partnership between public authorities and food manufacturers to ensure information about food is respected, however experience shows that a lot of the information provided is not used, because consumer education on essential food information is missing. What is needed, is not ever more information on the labels, but a joint initiative on consumer education in which industry, consumer organisations and government organisations provide the necessary consumer education.

Respecting “user needs”

There is an urgent need for better consultation of and co-operation with “users” when drafting EU labelling legislation. Shared interests concern amongst others

·         Accessibility: Labelling legislation must be easy to find , clearly drafted etc

·         practicability: Avoid frequent label changes, and multiple implementation dates, it is extremely costly to the European food industry

·         partnership in regulatory process to ensure compliance

·         feasibility,

·         readability and

·         understandability.

Other points of concern are regularly consolidation of legislation, synchronised labelling implementation dates every two or three years where no safety issues are concerned, recognition of a common market (multi-lingual packs, the use of IT systems applicable for consumer information on essential items to be discussed and decided, space needed for cooking instructions and other pieces of consumer information and education).

For further information please contact:

Mr Henrik Schramm Rasmussen, The Danish Food and Drink Federation in DI.      E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3009.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation

Legislation

COM(2005)119 final

Seventh framework programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities.

Summary

Proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the seventh framework programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities.

Need for simplification

There is a great need to introduce new flexible instruments in order to make the seventh framework programme successful.

Proposal for simplification

New instruments

In that regard the Confederation of the Danish Industries proposes a new funding instrument - a 1-1 cooperation - which allows for a company to engage in a cooperation with another company or research institution under the condition that the companies or research institutions origins in at least two different countries.

Reducing bureaucracy

There are three specific areas in particular in which reforms of the current procedures will contribute to a reduction of the bureaucracy of the framework program:

-           Reducing the cost of applying

-           A changed funding model (flat rate system or grant based)

-           Fewer participants in each project

For further information please contact:

Mr Mikkel Bülow Skovborg, Educational Research Department. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3918.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation

Legislation

1999/5/EC Telecom

Summary

Article 6.4 states that manufacturers of radio equipment should notify the authorities about the product.

Need for simplification

The main part of the businesses does not comply with the regulation, which is a leftover from the days of strict regulation of radiobroadcast. The regulation is obsolete with the present level of technology, where other means can be used to prevent "noise" on the broadcast bands for radioproducts.

Proposal for simplification

DI agrees with the Commissions proposal to abolish the regulation

For further information please contact:

Ms Susanne Andersen, DI - ITEK. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3345.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation

Legislation

2000/31/EC E-commerce

Summary

Regulation of electronic commerce.

Need for simplification

To make sure that there is no contradictions in the different directives regulating E-commerce.

Proposal for simplification

DI agrees with the Commissions proposal to bring the directive in accordance with other directives regulating E-commerce.

For further information please contact:

Ms Susanne Andersen, DI - ITEK. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3345.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation

Legislation

New Regulatory framework. Directives: 2002/19EC, 2002/20/EC, 2002/21/EC, 2002/21/EC, 2002/58/EC, 2002/77/EC and regulative: 2887/2000

Summary

Regulation of the market of communication and its 18 submarkets.

Need for simplification

The regulation of the market in different sectors is not up to date with reality. New technology makes it possible to offer different services from the same platform. For example internet-, television- and telephoneservices can now be distributed by the same cables and thereby offered by the same operators. This means that regulation should view the market as unified and not as different submarkets.

Proposal for simplification

DI proposes to speed up the process of revision of the regulation. There is a need for a new unifying framework which focuses on innovation and growth in the business.

For further information please contact:

Ms Susanne Andersen, DI - ITEK. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3345.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Taxation

Legislation

Commission proposal for simplifying value added tax obligations, COM(2004) 728 final

Summary

In 1998 the Commission put forward a proposal for a directive that included a review of the refund procedure of value added tax, COM(1998) 377 (the so-called deduction directive). Taxable persons would, under the proposed system, be able to recover VAT directly through VAT declarations filed in the Member State of establishment, in stead of being forced through a difficult procedure to claim the VAT-refund from the authorities in the import country. This system would, as the Commission pointed our, greatly simplify matters for traders.

Need for simplification

VAT obligations are an obstacle to the Internal Market and as such also to the Lisbon process. The compliant costs for traders are huge. The trader is already burdened with interpreting the law and following other VAT obligations, and should be relieved as much as possible of his present-day obligations for handling the consumer's tax. Thus the burden of handling the payment should as far as possible be borne by the Member States.

Proposal for simplification

One-stop scheme

The Commission proposal of implementing an one-stop system, where businesses can choose to file all VAT declarations for trade with other EU-countries in their homestate is a substantial improvement.. The businesses will now have the choice of getting a VAT registration in the country of consumption or use the one-stop shop. It is important however that the possibility to file joint VAT declarations applies both for trade with consumers and other businesses. Also it should be the activity in the country of consumption that determines the compensation and not the businesses payment of VAT in the homecountry.

DI supports the proposal but has following suggestions for improvement:

-           Companies often have production units in several Member States, i.e. the production is integrated within the Internal market. A cross-border VAT grouping system would be the single most effective simplification and integration friendly change.

-           The period for filing, 20 days, is too short. The period of credit is greatly reduced compared to domestic transactions. DI proposes a longer period to ameliorate the businesses' liquidity and to create balance between the filing periods for businesses and the authorities.

Exclusions from the right to deduct

The proposal introduces a list of the areas where special rules are in effect. This creates opportunities for businesses to predict in advances when they should be attentive of special circumstances.

In principle all input VAT for business costs should be deductible. Naturally it would be ideal for traders to have the same rules for deduction in all Member States, however DI acknowledges that such a harmonisation is not possible at this time.

Extension of reverse charge

The Commissions proposal will extend the use of the reverse charge mechanism for trade between enterprises (B2B). This way, the obligations for traders are simplified and the risk for tax evasion is minimised.

It is important that the system is clear about who is responsible for the payment. Even the current system can be unclear about this issue. DI also recommends that businesses can chose between using the reverse charge system and the one-stop-shop, so the system is as flexible as possible.

SMEs

The Commission proposes a new threshold at a turnover of 100 000 Euro for granting an exemption to tax. DI has no remarks, since a lower threshold can be set by the national governments.

Distance selling

The proposal sets a new community threshold at 150.000 Euro to replace the national threshold between 35.000 Euro and a 100.000 Euro.

DI can not support this change. The present rules for distance selling are cumbersome. The system is however necessary, since the VAT rates differ so much. Traders in Member States with high standard rates are however already today put at a disadvantage. That disadvantage would be aggravated with an increase in the threshold which would distort competition further.

For further information contact:

Mr Kristian Koktvedgaard, DI's Department of Tax and Legal Affairs. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3577.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Taxation

Legislation

New proposal

Summary

A new common EU tax-database.

Need for simplification

At the moment the enterprises operating in the EU have to take 25 different taxregulations into consideration. A unified system would significantly reduce the administrative and economic burdens on private enterprises.

Proposal for simplification

The commission is working on a common tax-database but it is a long term project. DI proposes to speed-up the process. At the same time DI suggests that the new da-tabase does not contain minimum and maximum taxrates, since the EU-countries needs to maintain a healthy competition on taxrates.

In addition the Commissions pilotproject on Home State Taxation (HST) of small and mediumsized companies should be implemented. With HST a company operating in more than one memberstate is taxed only by the taxsystem in the homecountry.

For further information contact:

Ms Lene Nielsen, DI's Department of Tax and Legal Affairs. E-mail: [email protected] or phone: +45 3377 3577.

SECTOR

Maritime

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Maritime Authority

Legislation

Directive 95/21EU On Port State Control

Summary

Tankers, bulk carriers and Passenger vessels reporting 72 to 24 hours prior to call at a port within the community article 7 and Annex 5

Need for simplification

Since it is only for the Port State to consider whether a mandatory inspection need to be performed, it should be possible to check with a database in stead of reporting from the vessels

Proposal for simplification

No reporting or simple reporting to be performed e.g. IMO no. and ETA should be sufficient

SECTOR

Maritime

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Maritime Authority

Legislation

2002/59EU establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system

Summary

Article 4 and 5 Notification prior to entry into ports of the Member States

1. The operator, agent or master of a ship bound for a port of a Member State shall notify the information in Annex I(1) to the port authority:

(a) at least twenty-four hours in advance; or

(b) at the latest, at the time the ship leaves the previous port, if the voyage time is less than twenty-four hours; or

(c) if the port of call is not known or it is changed during the voyage, as soon as this information is available.

2. Ships coming from a port outside the Community and bound for a port of a Member State carrying dangerous or polluting goods, shall comply with the notification obligations of Article 13.

Article 5

Monitoring of ships entering the area of mandatory ship reporting systems

1. The Member State concerned shall monitor and take all necessary and appropriate measures to ensure that all ships entering the area of a mandatory ship reporting system, adopted by the IMO according to Regulation 11 Chapter V of the SOLAS Convention and operated by one or more States, of which at least one is a Member State, in accordance with the relevant guidelines and criteria developed by the IMO, comply with that system in reporting the information required without prejudice to additional information required by a Member State in accordance with IMO Resolution A.851(20).

Need for simplification

Excessive effort from shippers and shipowners to identify sustances transported

Proposal for simplification

Creation of an international database with relevant data on substances for reference

SECTOR

Maritime

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Maritime Authority

Legislation

COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 98/41/EC of 18 June 1998 on the registration of persons sailing on board passenger ships operating to or from ports of the Member States of the Community

Summary

Article 4

1. All persons on board any passenger ship which departs from a port located in a Member State shall be counted before that passenger ship departs.

2. Before the passenger ship departs the number of persons on board shall be communicated to the master of the passenger ship and to the company's passenger registrar or to a shore-based company system that performs the same function.

Article 5

1. The following information shall be recorded regarding every passenger ship that departs from a port located in a Member State to undertake a voyage of more than twenty miles from the point of departure:

- the family names of the persons on board,

- their forenames or initials,

- their sex,

- an indication of the category of age (adult, child or infant) to which each person belongs, or the age, or the year of birth,

- when volunteered by a passenger, information concerning the need for special care or assistance in emergency situations.

2. That information shall be collected before departure and communicated not later than thirty minutes after the passenger ship's departure to the company's passenger registrar or to a shore-based company system that performs the same function.

Need for simplification

Very bulky demand on info, even on short routes

Proposal for simplification

Any information other than number of pax. Irrelevant on routes transiting less than 18 hrs.

SECTOR

Maritime

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Maritime Authority

Legislation

Directive 2000/59/EC of 27 November 2000

on port reception facilities for ship-generated waste and cargo residues

Summary

Article 6

Notification

1. The master of a ship, other than a fishing vessel or recreational craft authorised to carry no more than 12 passengers, bound for a port located in the Community shall complete truly and accurately the form in Annex II and notify that information to the authority or body designated for this purpose by the Member State in which that port is located:

(a) at least 24 hours prior to arrival, if the port of call is known; or

(b) as soon as the port of call is known, if this information is available less than 24 hours prior to arrival; or

(c) at the latest upon departure from the previous port, if the duration of the voyage is less than 24 hours.

Member States may decide that the information will be notified to the operator of the port reception facility, who will forward it to the relevant authority.

2. The information referred to in paragraph 1 shall be kept on board at least until the next port of call and shall upon request be made available to the Member States' authorities.

Article 7

Delivery of ship-generated waste

1. The master of a ship calling at a Community port shall, before leaving the port, deliver all ship-generated waste to a port reception facility.

2. Notwithstanding paragraph 1, a ship may proceed to the next port of call without delivering the ship-generated waste, if it follows from the information given in accordance with Article 6 and Annex II, that there is sufficient dedicated storage capacity for all ship-generated waste that has been accumulated and will be accumulated during the intended voyage of the ship until the port of delivery.

If there are good reasons to believe that adequate facilities are not available at the intended port of delivery, or if this port is unknown, and that there is therefore a risk that the waste will be discharged at sea, the Member State shall take all necessary measures to prevent marine pollution, if necessary by requiring the ship to deliver its waste before departure from the port.

3. Paragraph 2 shall apply without prejudice to more stringent delivery requirements for ships adopted in accordance with international law.

Article 8

Fees for ship-generated waste

1. Member States shall ensure that the costs of port reception facilities for ship-generated waste, including the treatment and disposal of the waste, shall be covered through the collection of a fee from ships.

2. The cost recovery systems for using port reception facilities shall provide no incentive for ships to discharge their waste into the sea. To this end the following principles shall apply to ships other than fishing vessels and recreational craft authorised to carry no more than 12 passengers:

(a) all ships calling at a port of a Member State shall contribute significantly to the costs referred to in paragraph 1, irrespective of actual use of the facilities. Arrangements to this effect may include incorporation of the fee in the port dues or a separate standard waste fee. The fees may be differentiated with respect to, inter alia, the category, type and size of the ship;

(b) the part of the costs which is not covered by the fee referred to in subparagraph (a), if any, shall be covered on the basis of the types and quantities of ship-generated waste actually delivered by the ship;

(c) fees may be reduced if the ship's environmental management, design, equipment and operation are such that the master of the ship can demonstrate that it produces reduced quantities of ship-generated waste.

3. In order to ensure that the fees are fair, transparent, non-discriminatory and reflect the costs of the facilities and services made available and, where appropriate, used, the amount of the fees and the basis on which they have been calculated should be made clear for the port users.

Need for simplification

The captain must keep a very detailed record of waste at all times,  simply to satisfy the directive

Proposal for simplification

Directive to be discontinued.

SECTOR

Maritime

Ministry responsible

Ministry of the Environment

Legislation

Directive 2004/35/EC of 21 April 2004

Summary

Environmental liability with regard to the prevention and restoration of environmental damage.

Need for simplification

Some exceptions have been included in the Directive as far as liability for environmental damage for ships is concerned. However, a more clear cut solution creating greater certainty would be to exclude ships entirely from the scope of the Directive. The liability for environmental damage caused by ships is already regulated in a very detailed way by IMO conventions and there is no need to introduce on an EU-level further regulation as far as shipping is concerned. It creates great uncertainty and thereby also a number of administrative problems etc. where the EU attempts to improve on, modify or add to conventions already agreed within IMO and acceded to by a large majority, if not all Member States of the EU.

Proposal for simplification

The Directive should be modified so as completely to exclude ships from the scope of the Directive.

SECTOR

Maritime

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Maritime Authority

Legislation

Regulation No 3577/92/EEC of 7 December 1992

Summary

Cabotage-regulation

Need for simplification

Remaining restriction on access to the cabotage markets in certain member states hampers the efficiency of maritime and intermodal transport.

Proposal for simplification

Liberalise the market by removing the restrictions on market access.

SECTOR

Maritime

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Maritime Authority and Ministry of Transport and Energy

Legislation

Council Directive 96/53/EC of 25 July 1996 laying down for certain road vehicles circulating within the Community the maximum authorized dimensions in national and international traffic and the maximum authorized weights in international traffic

Summary

The regulation will phase out the use of 45 feet containers by the end of 2006

Need for simplification

The ban on the use of 45 feet containers will lead to the use of more traditional containers with more congestion on the European roads as the result.

Proposal for simplification

Allow the continued use of 45 feet containers after 2006

SECTOR

Maritime

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Maritime Authority and Competition Authority

Legislation

Regulation 4056/86

Summary

The regulation applying the general competition rules to maritime transport is under review.

Need for simplification

If this review does not lead to a situation where the industry clearly knows which forms of cooperation are allowed and under which conditions it will hamper maritime transport.

Proposal for simplification

The result of the review must be accompanied by clear guidance from the Commission to the industry.

SECTOR

Financial information from companies

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Financial Supervisory Authority

Legislation

Directive 2004/109/EC of 15 December 2004 on transparency requirements

Summary

Harmonization of transparency requirements in relation to information about issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market.

Need for simplification

Interim management statements are often misleading for the market and not necessary, because companies are always under an obligation to inform whenever important events take place. They clearly constitute an administrative burden.

Proposal for simplification

Abolish Article 6.

SECTOR

Financial information from companies

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Financial Supervisory Authority

Legislation

Directive 2003/71/EC of 4 November 2003

Summary

Regulates the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading.

Need for simplification

Under Article 10 companies are required on an annual basis to publish a summary of all information given to the public during the year. This arrangement seems rather superfluous and should be abolished. The annual report is supposed to cover all important events of the year.

Proposal for simplification

Abolish Article 10.

SECTOR

Financial information from companies

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Financial Supervisory Authority

Legislation

Commission Regulation (EC) No. 809/2004 of 29 April 2004 on implementation of Directive 2003/71/EC

Summary

Information to be contained in prospectuses as well as the format, incorporation by reference and publication of such prospectuses and dissemination of advertisements.

Need for simplification

The Annex to the Directive seems rather detailed and cumbersome and a number of simplifications may be achieved.

Proposal for simplification

Simplify the Annex to the Regulation.

SECTOR

Financial information from companies

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Financial Supervisory Authority

Legislation

Directive 2004/25/EC of 21 April 2004

Summary

Directive on takeover bids.

Need for simplification

The Directive should only cover the procedural aspects in connection with takeover bids. It should not contain rules which somehow influence the possible success of takeover bids. The market alone should decide whether a takeover bid should succeed or not.

Proposal for simplification

Abolish Articles 9 and 11 of the Takeover Directive and make the necessary adjustments of the Directive.

SECTOR

Financial information from companies

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Financial Supervisory Authority

Legislation

Directive 2004/25/EC of 21 April 2004

Summary

Directive on takeover bids.

Need for simplification

Article 10 of the Directive requires companies to publish a number of detailed information. This article has to a large extent a bureaucratic character.

Proposal for simplification

Modify Article 10. In particular point (j) should be abolished.

SECTOR

Financial information from companies

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Financial Supervisory Authority

Legislation

CESR recommendations etc.

Summary

CESR has published a large number of recommendations implementing EU financial directives.

Need for simplification

There is a tendency in most of the recommendations to overregulation and certainly a large number of simplifications can be achieved.

Proposal for simplification

Abolish or simplify a number of CESR recommendations.

SECTOR

Financial information from companies

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Financial Supervisory Authority

Legislation

Directive 2003/6/EC of 28 January 2003

Summary

Directive on insider dealing and market manipulation

Need for simplification

The rule in Article 6, paragraph 4 requires persons employed etc. by an issuer to notify to the competent authority the existence of transactions conducted on their own account relating to shares etc. of the issuer where such persons are discharging certain responsibilities within the issuer. There is also a follow-up directive from the Commission: Directive 2004/72/EC of 29 April 2004. These rules are of no practical importance. By and large they only serve to satisfy the curiosity of certain analysts etc. If such transactions are performed as part of an insider trading we must fear they will be kept secret. Thus the warning flag-purpose of these rules - which are their primary purpose - has no effect. To companies the rules create a lot of administrative burdens and problems. 

Proposal for simplification

Article 6, paragraph 4 of Directive 2003/6/EC and the follow-up rules in the Commission Directive should be abolished.

SECTOR

Social affairs

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Employment

Legislation

Directive 2002/14/EC of 11 March 2002

Summary

Establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees in the European Community.

Need for simplification

The issues dealt with by this Directive should be left to be regulated by national law. In Denmark we have collective agreements dealing with information and consultation and the Directive does not take into account the fact that in Denmark we also have a system with employee representation in the boards of limited companies who are informed and consulted as board members. The Danish situation illustrates that it is difficult, if not impossible, to adopt directives in this area. There are probably a number of different systems in Member States dealing with information and consultation. Such systems are not abolished as a consequence of the Directive, but the Directive simply adds to what is already established on a national level. Thus to a large extent the Directive constitutes overregulation at least in some countries. Furthermore, the issues dealt with by the Directive should not be regulated on EU-level, but should be left to the Member States to regulate. The various national rules are tailor-made to the national circumstances, the different traditions etc. and we very much doubt that in this area it is appropriate to have EU-regulation.

Proposal for simplification

The Directive should be modified or entirely abolished.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Statistics Denmark

Legislation

COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 530/1999 of 9th marts 1999

Summary

Need for simplification

The quality reports are based on a common template with six quality dimensions where one of the quality dimensions is coherence with other statistical areas with identical or similar variables.

Documentation regarding Structural Statistics on Earnings and Labour Costs for coherence in data related to: The Labour Force Survey (LFS), Structure of Business Statistics (SBS), Labour Cost Index (LCI) and National Accounts (NA) have to be delivered on NACE sections and reasons have to be indicated if differences occur.

Proposal for simplification

Our proposal is to cut back on the analysis of coherence to a much more aggregated level.

There is definitely a need to control coherence between statistics produced in different domains. A number of the differences are due to the definitions and concepts of the statistical products. It is burdensome for Member States to explain these differences, which occur in each country and in many cases they are similar. When analysis of coherence is needed, our proposal is that Eurostat conducts it and Member States only comment on substantial differences not related to definitions or concepts.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Statistics Denmark

Legislation

Council and European Parliament Regulation No 808/2004 concerning Community statistics on the information society (draft implementing regulation)

Summary

Need for simplification

The comments refer to the measurement of enterprises use of ICT 2006.

I Ordinary questionnaire

Denmark finds that the proposed set of indicators now has reached its maximum measured both in quantitative and qualitative terms. The questionnaire is markedly longer compared to the 2003 model questionnaire that was known under the negotiation of the IS regulation. The ISS regulation states that the Implementing measures should take into consideration Member States' resources and the burden on respondents.

II Financial sector questionnaire

The special questions on the financial sector go beyond what is necessary to include this sector in the survey and has more or less developed into an independent survey with its own questionnaire. This was not foreseen in the ISS regulation. 

Proposal for simplification

I Ordinary questionnaire

Denmark welcomes further reductions, by applying the principles on flexibility from the ISS regulation. This is done by having modules with a fixed duration. Moreover, flexibility is ensured as not all variables should be surveyed every year. At the same time we would like to emphasize that we welcome new indicators. In order to avoid increasing burden on businesses, Denmark will show maximum flexibility concerning negative priorities.

II Financial sector questionnaire

Denmark suggests that the sector is included in the survey, but with module c+d as voluntary to ease burden on businesses. The coverage of the financial sector should only be developed in conformity with the ordinary questionnaire in the future.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Statistics Denmark

Legislation

COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 3924/91 of 19th December 1991

Summary

Need for simplification

Two different production concepts are used in the PRODCOM Regulation. Statistics suggests that the same production concept should be used for all commodity groups, namely production sold during the survey period.  The two different production concepts are:

1) Data concerning 82% of the 5,600 detailed industrial commodity groups in the Regulation is collected on the basis of production sold during the survey period.

2) The remaining 18% must be collected on the basis of produced industrial commodities in the reference period, including the production of intermediaries used as a production input in the enterprise itself.

Proposal for simplification

Maintaining the two existing production concepts is contrary to the present efforts of simplifying the collection of data in order to:

1) reduce the response burden,

2) reduce the administrative statistical work and

3) increase the quality of the data (as many enterprises are not aware of the distinction between the existences of different production concepts).

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Statistics Denmark

Legislation

European Parliament of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No. 1165/98 concerning short-term statistics

Summary

Need for simplification

Proposal for simplification

Denmark welcomes in general the proposal, which adds new variables, makes some statistics more frequent and shortens the transmission deadlines to develop Short Term Statistics. However, to balance this increased burden, other variables in the present Regulation have to be left out. Especially, we think that the variable “New orders in Con-struction and Civil Engineering” should be removed.

In the amendment Regulation, the focus in the construction annex is on a change from a quarterly to a monthly production variable. This indicator, which is on the PEEI-list, will be a core variable for the construction sector.

This variable together with information on building permits and business opinion surveys render the New order variables superfluous.

Furthermore, the New order variables are considered to be of doubtful quality, and a great number of countries have problems with delivering data.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Statistics Denmark

Legislation

Council Regulation (EC, EURATOM) No 58/97 of 20 December 1996 concerning structural business statistics

Summary

Need for simplification

This Regulation consists of an important general annex covering all economic activities and some annexes covering specific activities. The specific annexes demand very specific statistics for enterprises within manufacturing, construction and trade.

Proposal for simplification

Some of these specific statistics should to be abandoned. This applies, e.g. to:

20 21 0 – 20 31 0, purchases of energy products (values) divided by types of energy, which should be reported for the industry (annex 2) and for the construction sector (annex 4).

21 11 0, investment in equipment and plant for pollution control, and special anti-pollution accessories (mainly end-of-pipe equipment), which should be reported for the industry (annex 2)

21 12 0, investment in equipment and plant linked to cleaner technology (”integrated technology”), which should be reported for the industry (annex 2)

21 14 0, total current expenditure on environmental protection, which should be reported for the industry (annex 2)

23 12 0, income from subcontracting, which should be reported for the construction sector (annex 4)

17 33 0, category of sales space for retail stores engaged in retail trade, which should be reported for the distributive trade sector (annex 3)

17 34 0, number of fixed market stands and/or stalls, which should be reported for the distributive trade sector (annex 3)

16 15 0, number of hours worked by employees, which should be reported for the construction sector (annex 4)

 

15 31 0, value of tangible goods acquired through financial leasing, which should be reported for the construction sector (annex 4)

If the variable 15 31 0 is removed, the definition of capital formation in the variables 15 12 0 - 15 15 0 should to changed to cover assets acquired through financial leasing. This would reduce the response burden on business enterprises, as the definition corresponds to the applied accounting principles (Danish and international principles) for compiling assets.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Statistics Denmark

Legislation

Commission Regulation (EC) No 642/2004 of 6 April 2004 on precision requirements for data collected in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 1172/98 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road

Summary

Need for simplification

Proposal for simplification

Denmark proposes that the statistics should be changed from quarterly to annual. Furthermore, we propose that the working party should discuss: 1) the frequency of the survey (from quarterly to yearly), 2) the list of variables, for the purpose of lowering the response burden and 3) the threshold of conducting the survey as well as the precision level.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Statistics Denmark

Legislation

Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1901/2000 laying down certain provisions for the implementation of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91

Summary

Need for simplification

The Combined Nomenclature (concerning commodities) defines the data to be reported for each commodity, including data on the quantity being traded. For many commodities two units must be reported; the main unit being net mass in kilograms and a supplementary unit (e.g. litre, pieces, etc.). As a result of earlier SLIM-studies, a simplification was introduced in Intrastat. A list of commodities was established. For the commodities included in the list, only a supplementary unit of quan-tity is to be reported and not the main unit being net mass in kilograms.

Proposal for simplification

We propose that there should be carried out a study in order to assess further needs for excluding quantity information, but only for commodities where both units of quantity data are to be reported today.

SECTOR

Customs

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Taxation (Central Customs and Tax Administration)

Legislation

Community legislation re customs in general – e.g. Community Customs Code – regulation (EC) 2913/92 and implementing regulations – Commission Regulation 2454/93

Summary

A critical analysis on the functioning and efficiency of the customs procedures etc is needed in order to modernize and simplify the Customs rules of EC

Need for simplification

Many of the present rules and procedures in the Customs area are no longer “up-to-date” – procedures originally designed to ease the burden of customs duties for EC Companies are - due to the decreasing customs tariffs in general – no longer economical efficient (the costs of maintaining and using them exceeds or are close to exceed the advantage of the procedures them self).   

Proposal for simplification

An – if possible – independent critical analysis of costs and benefits of the existing customs rules  should be conducted to identify areas that should be modernized (or even abandoned!).

SECTOR

Trade policy

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Legislation

All regulations etc that include tariffs

Summary

Abandoning of low customs tariffs

Need for simplification

Many resources are used in relation to collect and control duties paid – especially resources used to collect and control declarations relating to low tariffs are not in proportion with the duties collected.

Proposal for simplification

Tariffs under a certain level could be abandoned (e.g. 2 or 5 percent).

SECTOR

Trade policy/customs

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Taxation – Central Customs and Tax Administration

Legislation

Preferential Rules of origin (PRO) – GSP and agreements between EU and 3. countries – Commission regulation 2454/93 and the individual agreements

 Summary

Need for simplification

Present rules are very complex and difficult to understand. The usage of the systems with tariff preferences is therefore not used as widely as intended.

Proposal for simplification

Clear, simple and transparent PRO that meets today’s criteria for EC-policies - e.g. development.  Simple list rules.

SECTOR

Trade policy/customs

 Ministry responsible

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Taxation (Central Customs and Tax Administration)

Legislation

Non-preferential rules of origin – Regulation (EC) 2913/92 and Commission Regulation (EC) 2454/93

Summary

Simplify non-preferential rules of origin

Need for simplification

The set of Non-preferential rules of origin is at present very complex. The rules are used in relation to mainly statistics etc, and have only little tariff implication. Within WTO a standardisation exercise have been going on for ages – only creating the rules more and more complex.

At EC level the Customs Code only contains few rules in this area  - but interpretation of the rules include the work conducted by WTO (and WCO), which makes things very complex.   

Proposal for simplification

From the EC side work for real simplification of these rules – and thereby minimise the use of “special rules”

SECTOR

Trade Policy/Customs

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of  Taxation (Central Customs and Tax Administration)

Legislation

Customs Tariff - Regulation (EC) 2658/87

Summary

A simpler Customs Tariff (with fewer positions) could be achieved by only letting the Customs Tariff include tariff positions that are actually being used and which are necessary and justifiable.

Need for simplification

The Customs tariff includes many positions that have no use – or have no customs use. This makes the tariff very comprehensive and very complex to use.

Proposal for simplification

Simple “cleaning out” of positions that are not used would be a beginning. A more comprehensive and ambitious proposal is to join together positions that is no longer necessary and justifiable to keep apart (e.g. because they have approximately the same tariff rate etc).  

SECTOR

Customs/Trade Policy

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Taxation  (Central Customs and Tax Administration) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Legislation

Regulations on temporally tariff suspensions and autonomous quotas - Regulation (EC) No 2505/96  and Regulation (EC) No 1255/96

Summary

Tariff positions with low tariff rates could be automatically suspended and instead of quotas tariffs could be lowered. 

Need for simplification

In general costs exceed benefits in relation to the system of suspensions/quotas in relation to tariff positions with low tariff rates.

Proposal for simplification

Tariff positions with low tariff rates (e.g. 5 %) covered by a suspension or quotas, could be automatically replaced by a tariff rate of 0 %. 

SECTOR

Trade policy/Customs

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs Ministry of Ministry of Taxation – Central Customs and Tax Administration

Legislation

Quotas (regulations in general)

Summary

Abolish quotas in areas where customs tariffs are low.

Need for simplification

In general costs exceed benefits in relation to maintaining a system of quotas in rel ation to tariff positions with low tariff rates.

Proposal for simplification

Quotas could automatically be abolished for tariff positions with low tariff rates (e.g. 5 %) and be replaced by at tariff rate of 0 %. 

SECTOR

Customs

 Ministry responsible

Ministry of Taxation (Central Customs and Tax Administration)

Legislation

Community Customs Code – Regulation (EC) 2913/92

Summary

Security payment relating to Customs could be abandoned

Need for simplification

National VAT are – at least in Denmark – not covered by rules on security payment – and accounts for a much higher value that customs duties.  Many resources are used – both by administrations and economic operators in relation to security payments relating to customs duties. With decreasing customs duties costs to set up security payments become even more and more out of proportion.

Proposal for simplification

Abandon rules on security payment in relation to Customs duties.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

The Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Construction Products Directive (CPD) (89/106/EEC)

Summary

The CPD was agreed on by the Member States in 1988 and is the most complicated of the new method directives. According to the CPD products have to be in conformity with a harmonised standard or a European Technical Approval. The essential requirements in the CPD relate to the finished construction work and not directly to the products. Until now less than half of the expected harmonised standards have been finished and the technical approval system has not been used as foreseen.

Need for simplification

Yes.

Proposal for simplification

§         Explicit formulation of the rules regarding mandatory CE-marking.

Four Member States consider the CE-mark as voluntary, which compromise the credibility and the idea of the CE-mark. An explicit formulation of the rules concerning CE-marking would strengthen the Directive, the implementation of the CE-mark in the Member States and the realisation of free competition for construction products on the European market.

§         Voluntary ETA’s based upon guidelines

European Technical Approvals based on ETAG’s are today mandatory. Making all ETA’s voluntary would therefore constitute an administrative simplification of the Directive.

o        If voluntary ETA’s is not pursued it is absolutely essential that EOTA only operate within narrow scopes.

§         New article on system standards.

Many Member States use references to system standards in their national regulations and only to a limited extend references to product standards. To remove barriers to trade the preparation and maintaining of these standards should therefore be added to the Directive.

§         New article on rules of transition.

Addition of an article in the Directive that can regulate the period of time between the finishing of a harmonised standard and the removal of possible conflicting national regulations. The Directive has a general fault in this area, which compromise the realisation of free competition for construction products on the European market.

§         Change of terminology for attestation of conformity (AoC).

Simplification and harmonisation of the current terminology in annex 3 in the Directive (‘i’, ‘a’ and ‘1’) is not the same as the used terminology today in the Commission decisions and the mandates (1, 1+, 2, 2+, 3 and 4).

§         Notified Bodies

The notified bodies should only deal with regulatory aspects, as well as transparency in the work of the notified bodies should be pursued in a simplification process of the directive.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Employment

Legislation

Directive 91/533/ EEC of 14 October 1991 on an employer´s obligation to inform employees of the conditions applicable to the contract or employment relationship

Summary

The directive prescribes that the employer has an obligation to inform employees of the conditions applicable to the contract. However, ECJ jurisprudence has made it less obvious to fullfil the obligations of the  legislation because the employer has to consider each employment relationship and asses if special circumstances apply instead of just fullfilling the 10 item of article 2

Need for simplification

The Danish government proposes an amendment of the directive in order to simplify the administrative burden for the employer

Proposal for simplification

Amendment of the directive in order to secure that the list regarding the employer´s obligations is exhaustive as originally intended.

Transfer of enterprises: Accepting that information about the new employer can be given to the employees without changing the document concerning their employment or being certain that the amendment is stapled to the document. The employer is liable for the methods used to inform the employees about the new situation.

Changes in an existing employment relationship: Only an obligation to bring the document up to-date if the employee requires an update.

SECTOR

Health and Safety at work

Ministry responsible

 The Danish Ministry of Employment

Legislation

Council Directive 90/270/EEC of 29 May 1990 on the minimum safety and health requirements for work with display screen equipment

Summary

According to the directive there are some minium requirements for

§         The equipment such as display screen, keyboard, work desk, work chair

§         The environment such as space, lightening, reflection and glare, noise, heat, radiation and humidity

§         Operator/computer interface

Need for simplification

The requirements in the directive are very detailed and have their roots in a somewhat outdated technology. The detailed requirements are inexpedient compared to the technological progress that has been and will come in the field of computers

The technology has improved so much that technological solutions which do not fulfill the requirements of the directive, should be accepted because they are no danger to the safety and health of the employee. Eg. it should be allowed to work at a lab top. A lab top does not fulfill the requirements from directive 90/270/EEC

Proposal for simplification

The annex of the directive should be simplyfied and the requirements should not be as detailed as they are now.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

 Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

A codification of directive 85/611 EC,  88/220 EC, 95/26 EC, 107/2003, 108/2203 (Securities / UCITS)

Summary

A codification is needed in order to make the text comprehensive to the business society. The increased cooperation across financial sectors makes it highly necessary to be able to find and to compare directives.

Need for simplification

Yes – a codification

Proposal for simplification

Work is going on in CESR – The Committee for European Securities Supervisors

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Establishment of a best practice on impact assessments (level of details, microeconomic analysis, etc.)

Summary

It is important that the consequences of adopting directives are clear and based on the same systems

Need for simplification

Yes, and clarification as well

Proposal for simplification

Establishment of a best practice on impact assessments (level of details, microeconomic analysis, etc.)

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Insurance directives (non life insurance) – The following list may not be exhaustive:

220/87, 2002/65, 2001/17, 98/78, 92/49, 91/674, 90/618, 88/618, 88/357, 84/641, 78/473, 73/473

Summary

Need for adoption of consolidating directive

Need for simplification

A codification is needed in order to make the text comprehensive to the business society. The increased cooperation across financial sectors makes it highly necessary to be able to find and to compare directives.

Proposal for simplification

The Commission is looking at the scope of a consolidation.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Insurance directives – notably directive 92/49

Summary

Notification procedures

Need for simplification

The existing procedures when notifying cross-border activities and the setting up of branches may be simplified.

Proposal for simplification

The present system based on letters from the supervisory authorities to the companies containing information on the content of the "general good" rules may be replaced with a reference to the homepage of the supervisory authorities.

SECTOR

Ministry responsible

Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Directives on financial services + e-commerce directive

Summary

The financial industry request less and more coherent rules on information to be provided for the customers

Need for simplification

The provisions on information requirements when offering a financial product are located in separate directives. The provisions are coordinated in some directives but far from in all directives.

Proposal for simplification

Make an impact assessment of the present rules in order to replace the present requirements with a number of basic information requirements

SECTOR

Company law

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Denmark

Legislation

Third Council Directive 78/855/EEC of 9 October 1978 based on Article 54 (3) (g) of the Treaty, concerning mergers of public limited liability companies

Summary

According to the directive the member states are obligated to provide detailed rules on merger between national public limited companies. The purpose of these rules is to protect the interest of creditors, employees and shareholders of the companies involved in a merger.

Need for simplification

The directive needs to be simplified in order to ensure the conformity with related directives and to ensure that the directive is not unnecessarily administratively burdensome. 

Proposal for simplification

A general review of the directive.

SECTOR

Company law

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Denmark

Legislation

Sixth Council Directive 82/891/EEC of 17 December 1982 based on Article 54 (3) (g) of the Treaty, concerning the division of public limited liability companies

Summary

The directive leaves it as an option for the member states to provide rules on division of companies. If member states do so, the provisions of the directive are to be followed.

The purpose of the directive is to protect the interest of creditors, employees and shareholders of the companies involved in a division.

Need for simplification

The directive needs to be simplified in order to ensure the conformity with related directives and to ensure that the directive is not unnecessarily administratively burdensome. 

Proposal for simplification

A general review of the directive.

SECTOR

Company law

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Denmark

Legislation

Eleventh Council Directive 89/666/EEC of 21 December 1989 concerning disclosure requirements in respect of branches opened in a Member State by certain types of company governed by the law of another State

Summary

The directive provides rules where a company of one member state establishes a branch in another member state. The directive is a technical implementation of the right of establishment and lays down principles concerning disclosure requirements in respect of branches

Need for simplification

The establishment of a branch can be administratively burdensome for companies and leads to requirements of making the same information public in more than one member state at the same time.

Proposal for simplification

A general review of the directive in light of the recent development of disclosure of company information in the EU.

SECTOR

Housing and Construction

Ministry responsible

 Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Legislation

Directive 2004/18/EC – 31. March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public work contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts

(public procurement)

Summary

Public or publicly supported construction activitees with costs totalling more than appr. 46 mill. Dkr. are to be put in public EU-tender.

Need for simplification

Modern industrialized housing construction entails considerable advantages in terms of quality and cost. A precondition to achieve this is however that the end product is regarded as turn-key entity and not as a highly regulated process with tenders for the various elements.

 In recent years a need to mix various kinds of ownerships in one building scheme has arisen. This kind of development is next to impossible to carry out because this only can be done economically end efficiently if the total scheme is seen as one. If this is done today a privet developer can carry out the construction of the whole scheme and then sell part of it to a public supported building association.  The present regulation of this requires that the private developer complies with regulations concerning public supported construction and EU-tender. This requirement is not conducive to effective and cost efficient construction. The process shall have more emphasis on effectiveness than on process.

 

Proposal for simplification

As an alternative to public tendering of individual elements there should be an option for public tendering of the turn-key housing incl. a publicly supported part. In short, we should by houses like we buy cars.

Indspilles på ny (J/N)

SECTOR

Agricultural Statistics

NEJ

Ministry responsible

Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Statistics Denmark

Legislation

Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 of 29 February 1988

Need for simplification

Proposal for simplification

According to the Regulation farm structure surveys are to be conducted in 2003, 2005 and 2007. However, for almost all users it would be sufficient to describe the structure of the agricultural sector every third year, and for this reason it is proposed to conduct two surveys only in the years 2003 and 2006.   

Indspilles på ny (J/N)

SECTOR

Assessment of VAT

Nej

Ministry responsible

The Danish Ministry of Taxation

Legislation

Directive 77/388

Need for simplification

Proposal for simplification

Simplification needed

Ministry

Ministry of the Environment

Legislation

Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15. July 1975 on Waste

Summary

The directive on waste contains an unclear distinction between recovery and disposal. (Der er tale om en misforståelse her. Affald kan genanvendes og det giver ingen mening at skelne mellem genanvendelse og affald.) Inconsistent use of the terminology and annex does not include all recovery and disposal methods. Further more, it serves a purpose to introduce a definition of the terms reuse and recycling.

Need for simplification

The unclear definition and distinction between different waste handling options lead to bureaucratic handling of waste related questions at local and governmental level. This is especially true for the area import/export of waste. For methods not mentioned in the annexes to the directive it is extremely time consuming for the industries to obtain permission or approval from the municipalities and the EPA.

Proposal for simplification

It should be clearly underlined that the waste hierarchy is only advisory, but is must be considered as a guiding principle for choosing a new treatment. In specific cases, other handling options may be the best solution from as well an environmental as a cost benefit analytical point of view.

The annex II A and B should be rewritten, so they are not closed lists, but rather broad conditions for the treatment technologies in the various categories. It is very unclear what this proposal includes and what the consequences are. The effect of this will be a much smoother administration for industries and municipalities, and the possibility to direct waste for the optimal treatment environmentally.  In order to make a smooth administration for recycling of certain waste fraction, Denmark propose that the Waste Framework Directive introduce criteria for waste to be recycled. The criteria must be based on a consideration to the environment.