Von der Leyen's plan to cut EU bureaucracy

BrusselsBrussels' priorities have changed. The European Commission has stopped focusing on boosting the green agenda and the transparency of the public sector in an attempt to reduce the bureaucracy of the European Union and enhance the efficiency of community administrations. The objective is that companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, have to deal with less paperwork, especially to receive European aid. And, in this way, make the European bloc a more competitive region compared to the United States and China. However, the withdrawal of some controls also endangers compliance with the environmental regulations that Brussels had so strongly demanded until a few years ago to achieve climate objectives.

In this sense, Ursula von der Leyen's executive announced this Wednesday that during the next few months it will propose a package of legislative initiatives, most of which must be negotiated between the member states and the European Parliament. One of the most notable measures of this omnibus law aims to simplify all the procedures that farmers must carry out to access subsidies from the common agricultural policy (CAP), which represents about a third of the total community budget. In fact, the EU has already agreed after the wave of peasant protests a year ago which would reduce environmental controls on smaller farmers and ranchers and relax rules in the event of extreme weather conditions, such as drought, fires or floods.

The European Commission also says it will make it easier for small farmers to start-ups access to community funds or, among others, speed up the European bloc's rearmament initiatives and those aimed at increasing the capacity of the arms industry. "Citizens and businesses are demanding a simpler and more austere EU. The roadmap we are presenting points the way to being more competitive, resilient and prosperous," said Von der Leyen in a statement issued on Wednesday.

According to the European Commission's own calculations, with these measures the European Union could reduce the administrative burden faced by companies in general by 25% and by up to 35% in the case of small and medium-sized companies. If these objectives are achieved, Brussels believes that the cost of bureaucracy throughout the European Union, which is currently around 150 billion euros, would be reduced by around 35 billion.

Barring the outcome of negotiations on the new EU budgets

The European Commission also presented this Wednesday the main lines of the next EU budget, which is expected to come into force from 2028 to 2034. From there, European governments can begin to present their proposals and next July Brussels will officially present the general accounts, which will also have to be negotiated by the member states and the Parliament. At this point, the community executive has only advanced that it intends to increase defense funding, boost the competitiveness of European industry or, among other things, improve migration management and strengthen border controls.

The only country that has presented a proposal on the next European general accounts has been Spain. In a document to which the ARA has had access, the Moncloa asks to almost double the community budget, up to about 2 billion euros spread over at least five years. And although it is committed to increasing military spending, the Spanish government stresses its willingness to promote the ecological transition and the fight against climate change, and that the percentage of the budget allocated to it has increased from 30% to 50%.

On the other hand, the European Commission has opened a file against Spain for not transposing the European directive to accelerate the deployment of renewable energies and has also reported the State to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for not applying the regulations on doubtful loans. That is, those that are still being repaid but have a high risk of ending up being unpaid. It should be remembered that, in the event that state governments do not apply community laws, they face sanctions and million-dollar fines from European administrations.