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Europaudvalget 2009-10
EUU Alm.del Bilag 441
Offentligt

18. juni 2010

/sij

Sag

ERHVERVS- OG

SELSKABSSTY RELSEN

Danish response to consultation on Smart Regulation

Smart regulation provides a clear way for the EU to create well thought-out,

practical and proportionate responses to some of the greatest challenges the EU

is facing.

The Danish Government supports the approach that smart regulation should be

balanced and focus on enhancing the quality of regulation. A better quality of

regulation supports easy and flexible administration in businesses and thereby

also enhances their compliance – which, in turn, enhances protection level. The

Danish Government emphasises that administrative burdens should only be re-

duced when it does not reduce the basic protection levels in regulation.

Smart regulation is about maximising the benefits of regulation while minimis-

ing the burdens imposed on end-users. At every stage of the European policy-

and law-making process, end-users should be at the heart of how policies are

chosen, designed, implemented and monitored.

We need an approach that embeds the principles of smart regulation in every

intervention in all policy areas, providing a joint framework for EU institutions

and Member States to make transparent, evidence-based decisions which main-

tain the focus on the end-users.

The EU should further improve the framework conditions for businesses – es-

pecially small and micro entities - across the European Union. By improving

framework conditions businesses can spend more time on their core business in

stead of paper work, thereby creating the growth that is essential to the well be-

ing of the European society.

In concrete terms smart regulation should:

1. One way to improve the framework conditions is making regulation as

smart as possible, maximising the benefits of regulation while minimising

the burdens on

end-users.

The ultimate ambition of regulation must be for

end-users to accept and comply with it. Therefore the end-users’ voice is

essential so that the highest compliance can be obtained.

Kampmannsgade 1

1780 København V

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Fax

33 30 77 00

33 30 77 99

CVR-nr 10 15 08 17

[email protected]

www.eogs.dk

ØKONOMI- OG

ERHVERVSMINISTERIET

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2. Keeping end-users – employees, consumers, businesses and other organisa-

tions – in mind during policy-making, is the only way to consistently create

smart regulation. End-users are the key to highlighting a problem and to

judge whether an intervention will be effective. When end-users are in-

volved at every stage of the policy-making process, interventions are

thought through more clearly and better implemented from the beginning;

from choosing how the Commission should intervene, to developing a pol-

icy, to the Council and Parliament deliberating upon it and Member States

implementing it.

3. It is the policy maker and civil servants’ responsibility to involve end-

users. This means that policy makers and civil servants must be in direct

contact with end-users, the assumption being that in the end this will lead

to more concrete knowledge of the needs and practises of the end-user.

4. Smart regulation should contain of a number of practical instruments that

should be applied early in the policy-making process. These instruments

include intensified use of eGovernment, improved guidance, transparency,

and consultation. These instruments will make it easier for business to ac-

cept and comply with the rules. The Commission’s plans for ex-post evalu-

ating regulation are also highly welcomed – especially if it focuses on the

real effect the regulation has on the end-users.

Impact Assessments

are an important way of securing the voice of end-

users throughout the policy making process. Impact assessments should be

carried out by the Commission on all significant measures and be updated

throughout the policy-making process when substantial amendments are

proposed in the European Parliament and the Council.

6. The EU institutions should consider how the Council and Parliament can

receive the analytical support necessary for them to carry out impact as-

sessment on substantive amendments.

7. The independence of the Impact Assessment Board should be reinforced.

To ensure that the quality of proposals is enhanced by a demand from

highest political level, tougher consequences should be introduced where

the Impact Assessment Board has a negative opinion: a negative opinion

by the Impact Assessment Board would require oral procedure in the Col-

lege of Commissioners.

8. The Commission has announced that it will report to the Spring Council in

2012 on whether the target for

reducing the administrative burdens by

25 pct.

has been reached. The Danish Government will do all in our power

to ensure that the target is reached - with reductions that are real and tangi-

ble for businesses across the EU. The Danish Government will work on

strengthening ownership for the smart regulation agenda, hereunder for the

different Council formations to adopt the current proposals for administra-

tive burden reductions. It is our hope that the Commission will continue to

work on strengthening the ownership across the Commission.

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9. In the short run a dashboard of state of play for reaching the 25 pct. reduc-

tion target would be a good way to communicate the efforts to DGs, the

European Parliament, Member States, and other stakeholders.

10. The difficulties often experienced with businesses not noticing any change

in the business climate as a result for administrative burden reductions can

be met by an enhanced focus throughout the policy- and law-making pro-

cess on the end-user. Additionally, systematic “reality checks” with a num-

ber of companies on whether the reductions obtained will make everyday

life easier could be a practical way forward.

11. Tangible reductions in the stock of administrative burdens in European

regulation should continue to be pursued through substantial delivery of the

administrative burden reduction programme in all priority domains through

targeted simplification of administrative burdens and through the evalua-

tion of targeted pieces of legislation.

12. Smart regulation tools with a constant end-user focus such as eGovern-

ment, thorough consultation, analyses on effect for instance ex-post evalua-

tion, need to be back bone tools that always apply for all institutions across

policy areas.

With these recommendations we believe that smart regulation can provide a

clear way for the EU institutions to create practical and proportionate responses

to some of the greatest issues Europe faces. We encourage the EU institutions

to seize this opportunity to do so