First EU agreement on regulatory simplification aims to save money for businesses

Bunker of rules from Brussels are suffocating European businesses in administrative burdens.

That was one of the main messages from Mario Draghi when he pointed out Europe’s problems with competitiveness in the Draghi report.

But now there is good news.

On Tuesday evening, the Danish EU presidency succeeded in concluding negotiations with the EU Parliament on the first of a total of six packages.

These are intended to simplify regulations in various areas of the EU.

“This agreement is an important first step from the co-legislators towards alleviating the administrative burdens for businesses, citizens, and public authorities. It is a crucial goal to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness in the long term, as emphasized in the Draghi report,” states a written communication from the Danish EU presidency.

The agreement – known in Brussels language as Omnibus II – aims to simplify and strengthen the EU’s investment tools. The focus is on the flagship program InvestEU.

InvestEU is used to secure investments in the green and digital transition, innovation, competitiveness, and social cohesion.

The agreement means, among other things, that the “reporting burden” for the funds is simplified. This is intended to help especially smaller businesses.

Stine Bosse from the Moderates, who has negotiated on behalf of the Renew group in the EU Parliament, says about the agreement:

“Far too often, we think of the worst-case scenarios when we make laws. It ends up adding extensive monitoring and reporting rules that can become a bureaucratic nightmare for entrepreneurs. Now, InvestEU will not only be simplified but also expanded.”

The Commission estimates that the administrative simplification in the agreement will result in savings of around 350 million euros.

That corresponds to about 2.6 billion kroner.

At the same time, the EU’s guarantee for the program is increased by 2.9 billion euros to a total of 29.1 billion euros.

The hope is that this can help mobilize more than 50 billion euros in public and private investments.

The amount corresponds to about 370 billion kroner.

Denmark has a strengthened competitiveness in the EU as one of the central points under the Danish EU presidency.

Therefore, work will now continue on the other five proposals from the EU Commission for regulatory simplifications:

– It is crucial to streamline and simplify EU legislation if we want to maintain investments, production, and jobs in Europe, writes the Danish EU presidency.

Danish Industry praises the Danish EU presidency for securing the agreement.

But there is a need to quickly move forward to get more agreements in place, believes Andreas Geertsen, who is head of EU and European policy at Danish Industry.

“Now it is about keeping the momentum going and ensuring more genuine burden relief for European businesses so that we can strengthen our competitiveness. It is deeply necessary,” he says.