BRUSSELS — Eleven countries, led by Austria, are pushing to pause new EU legislation for 12 months for what the country’s Europe Minister Claudia Bauer described as a “year of simplification.”
“We can’t go on tabling new legislative proposals when existing rules have not been fully implemented,” Bauer said in an interview with Brussels Playbook, referring to a discussion paper signed by Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Portugal and Hungary, and seen by POLITICO.
Brussels is already scrambling to roll out red-tape-cutting packages known as “omnibuses” — but those efforts don’t go far enough, according to Bauer.
“What we are doing now is mostly ex-post simplification,” she said. “We fully support the Commission’s omnibus packages but it cannot become the standard that we have new legislation and then a whole string of other acts to simplify it. Simplification should start before legislation is adopted.”
The 11 countries want any proposed laws from Brussels to undergo a rigorous assessment to determine their suitability and whether they bolster economic competitiveness. Under their plan, all new regulations would be subject to an impact review every five years.
Brussels must devote an entire year to stocktaking of current laws and implement what’s already there, Bauer said. “Such an effort should not be viewed as deregulation, but as an exercise in legislative deep-cleaning,” a draft of the discussion paper reads.
“To quote Elvis Presley, we need a little less conversation and a little more action,” Bauer added.