By Bruno Waterfield - 14th November 2006
The European commission will step up efforts to cut business red tape by 25 per cent before 2012, Günter Verheugen will announce on Tuesday.
A panel of experts to monitor Brussels impact assessments carried out on pending legislation will be set up to kick start stalled initiatives to streamline regulations.
The new body, mainly comprised of senior officials, will report directly to commission president José Manuel Barroso and may bring in external advisors.
Verheugen hopes the new panel will boost the credibility of impact studies carried out by the same officials that assess, propose and draft new laws.
The German commission vice-president and EU enterprise chief upset colleagues and officials last month by publicly suggesting that permanent EU functionaries were obstructing cuts to red tape.
Verheugen will present a mixed report card on his anti-bureaucracy drive so far, with only 68 obsolete regulations scrapped to date and another 10 set to be cut in 2007.
Only half of 100 planned simplification exercises have been set up on time and Verheugen will prioritise 20 for swift action.
National governments, often accused of gold-plating EU legislation, will be asked to provide “correlation tables” explaining how domestic implementation corresponds to original Brussels regulation.
Much is at stake for Verheugen – the vice-president has put the plans so high on his agenda that an eventual failure would be a real political setback.
Verheugen says the initiative could cut costs by 25 per cent by 2012 – saving EU businesses €150bn per year.
But the member states will need to be fully on board if the drive against red tape is to be successful.
According to German press reports, Verheugen plans to ask the national governments to formally commit to the initiative during the March 2007 summit, which will be held under Germany's EU presidency.
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