Opening remarks by Commissioner Serafin during the European Parliament debate Cutting costs and unnecessary reporting obligations now – concrete next steps to deliver swift relief for EU's entrepreneurs

The debate today is about a very simple question: is Europe doing enough to make life easier for those who create jobs, invest, innovate and grow our economy?

For many, too many companies, the answer is that they expect more.

They still spent too much time navigating complex rules, filling in forms and meeting overlapping reporting requirements, that do little to help them grow, hire or compete.

Nowhere is this more important than for SMEs. For them, excessive reporting means lost time and money. This is true for all red tape that holds Europe back and undermines our competitiveness.
 
The Commission has, therefore, implemented an approach covering all administrative costs and changing the way we legislate. We implement right now 'simplicity by design'. That includes, first, legislation that implements the 'once only principle'. Before asking companies to provide any additional information on documents, we first check whether we already have them. Second, regulatory discipline: we introduce reporting requirements only when they are strictly necessary, and we will act at EU level only when justified in line with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Cutting administrative burdens and reporting requirements is a clear priority across the whole College. Each Commissioner has been asked to contribute to this exercise.

Our aim is clear: to remove unnecessary complexity from existing EU rules and ensure that new requirements are justified. Since the start of its mandate, the Commission has proposed measures  that could save EUR 22.3 billion in administrative costs every year, provided  the co-legislators maintain the level of ambition in Commission's proposals.

That matters. Every euro saved in paperwork is a euro that can be used towards more investment, innovation, wages or growth.

The Commission is accelerating its efforts but real change requires all institutions to pull  in the same direction.