The future of better regulation in the EU

The annual costs that European companies face when meeting bureaucratic regulations amount to €470 billion, or 3.5 percent of the EU's GNP. Thirty percent of that results from requirements imposed at the European level. The EU has thus announced it wants reduce administrative costs for the business community by 25 percent through 2012.  

"Now it's a matter of working together with the business community to carry out existing better-regulation programs so that measures can be introduced that give companies priority," said Signhild Arnegård Hansen, president of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. "The relevant EU bodies must make existing processes their highest priority so that concrete streamlining measures can be implemented without delay. Companies, especially small and midsized ones, need rules that are efficient, simple and clear so they can compete in a rapidly changing market."  

As Jöran Hägglund, state secretary at Sweden's Economics Ministry, summarized, "One of this conference's main messages is that more ideas and suggestions have to be transformed into concrete action. Better regulation must become a core issue addressed when every decision is made, and we understand that new problems require new solutions. It's very important to carry out existing measures, but it's at least as important to develop new solutions that support the better regulation agenda."  

"A key role of government is increasing and maintaining trust in state power," said Jörg Dräger, member of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board. "This is true not only in times of crisis; it also applies to the full range of ongoing governance activities. Helping citizens get involved must become an integral part of better-regulation efforts. At the same time, government must be efficient. Those are the key challenges governance systems face if they want to prove effective in the future."