In Brussels, the current legislature promised to be the moment when the continent would simplify all the bureaucratic hurdles that were preventing it from recovering economic and business leadership. With this purpose, the European Commission presented its “instruction manual” last week under the strategy “One Europe, One Single Market”, and with that same spirit it has presented this week a new guide so that laws are “simpler, clearer and better enforced”.
At its core, it is about European institutions modernizing both the design as well as the implementation and the final execution of all legislative files that come out of the European Union. The challenge is not minor: to guarantee that the rules are clear, agile, and suitable for the objectives for which they were conceived. All of this, they believe in the European capital, will help boost competitiveness and will reinforce legal certainty within the framework of the strategy for the single market that the executive presented to the leaders of the continent during their informal summit in Cyprus.
Modernize the European legislative process
Twelve priority sectors for Europeans, such as energy, digital services, and transport, will benefit from the comprehensive modernization of EU legislation presented by Brussels in its new effort to create a simpler regulatory framework that fosters innovation. “The EU exists to deliver results for our citizens and businesses, not to generate unnecessary red tape”, states the economic chief of the EU executive, Valdis Dombrovskis, who points out that the European regulatory model “must be a means to build a competitive social market economy”.
The starting idea is that the new legislative proposals presented by the European Commission avoid from the beginning of their processing complexity and fragmentation. In this sense, a file will be considered as “simple by design” at the moment when those affected easily understand issues such as what the objective is, who should act and when, how compliance is achieved and what happens if obligations are not met.
More regulations, fewer directives
How to do it? Dombrovskis says he has the answer. "Subsidiarity and proportionality will be rigorously applied", prioritizing the use of exhaustive regulations over directives to limit national fragmentation. As the former director of the Commission's legal services, and current director of its Representation in Spain, Daniel Calleja, stated in an interview with Demócrata: "We would need more regulations and fewer directives, since directives require transposition by the Member State, which sometimes goes beyond what the directive says and adds requirements not foreseen in it".
Sunset clauses will also be activated so that laws automatically become obsolete on a given date if they are no longer needed, in addition to periodic review clauses. To make legislation more accessible, the summaries distributed by the Commission will be improved, while digital tools such as Edit for electronic legal drafting will be launched.
When carrying out impact assessments, they are expected to focus on the most significant economic, social, and environmental impacts through an “initial key impacts matrix”. This will be accompanied by minimum evidence requirements even for urgent proposals, requiring an analytical document in cases where there is no time for a full impact assessment.
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To avoid the “consultation fatigue”, the Commission will try to consult the public only once per initiative, with the aim of optimizing deadlines in the procedures and avoiding halts due to holiday periods.
Review of all European regulations
In parallel, the Executive is preparing a comprehensive review of all existing European regulations as of today to end inconsistencies, overlaps, and those articles that are considered obsolete. In total, twelve priority areas have been identified that will be examined in the next two years:
- Free movement of goods and services (including a future European Product Law).
- Financial services and banking.
- Customs Union.
- Taxation (including a "Taxation Omnibus").
- Health and food safety.
- Agriculture.
- Transport.
- Energy.
- Climate.
- Environment.
- Digital.
- Housing and permits.
In line with what Calleja proposed, Brussels has set out to combat the current tendency by Member States to introduce additional administrative burdens when transposing EU directives. Therefore, a set of best practice tools will be provided to help Member States identify and avoid this overregulation, with the intention of using the so-called “European Semester” to highlight the most detrimental barriers.
More control and tougher sanctions
Von der Leyen, as she proposed to the Twenty-Seven, has asked to strengthen the enforcement of single market rules so that member states play the game on equal terms. The Commission's services will track eleven key areas such as product labeling, the circular economy, late payments or cross-border mobility of companies, where it will investigate all States to open fast infringement procedures if necessary.
Furthermore, reasoned opinions in cases of non-transposition will be expedited and extensions to response deadlines for capitals will be reduced. Brussels' strategy here involves launching an Artificial Intelligence pilot project capable of assisting in verifying compliance with the transposition of national rules.
Brussels wants to be stricter in the financial sanctions imposed for non-compliance. From now on, it will be more rigorous when calculating the fines proposed to the Court of Justice to ensure that they are truly dissuasive. “We will also address the excessive complexity of legislation, streamline its application, and purify our current legal framework. This is a fundamental contribution to strengthening our competitiveness”, Von der Leyen has expressed about this announcement.
Spain, under surveillance for non-compliance
The truth is that the Spanish Government received in October the warning from the European Commission for the non-compliance when applying community regulations in national legislation. This is revealed by the body's latest package of decisions on infringement procedures. Through this document, legal actions are undertaken against those States that do not comply with their obligations. Specifically, Spain is late in matters such as migration, security, mobility and financial stability.
The Executive's action, which covers different European areas of activity, seeks to ensure "the correct application of Union law" for the benefit of citizens and businesses. When these delays in the transposition of regulations are detected, a "letter of formal notice" is sent to the capitals for them to show their observations and explain the situation.
On this occasion, delays were detected in the transposition of the directive on information exchange between States, in the regulation against sexual abuse of minors, and in the directive on the firmness of settlement. Furthermore, non-compliance with air legislation regarding charges for hand luggage has been detected.