Cutting red tape: Schulz should stick to his election pledges

European Parliament calls for lightening the burden of EU regulation on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

"Socialist candidate for the European elections, Martin Schulz, preaches to cut EU red tape, but then votes against it", said EPP Group MEP Paul Rübig. Rübig drafted a parliamentary Resolution on the Top Ten bureaucracy burdens for small and medium-sized enterprises, which was adopted today.

"Schulz' campaign slogan, that the EU should not meddle with too many details when making laws, is mere lip service. The braking manoeuvres of the Socialists in the European Parliament completely contravene their election pledge", said Rübig.

Schulz' campaign slogan, that the EU should not meddle with too many details when making laws, is mere lip service. Paul Rübig MEP

Examples of laws Rübig would like to simplify are the Working Time Directive, VAT, environmental and waste laws, or REACH, the EU Regulation on chemicals.

The adopted Resolution also stresses that it is not sufficient to just amend the Top Ten laws, which entail too much bureaucracy. "Whenever a new law is made, it must be done involving as little administration as possible", said Rübig.

The EPP Group MEP is calling for more impact assessments, shareholder and social partner consultations and ex-post evaluations: "We should have the courage to scrap legislation if the impact assessment so recommends."

"Very often, it is national gold-plating of EU laws which makes life difficult for SMEs. When the EU enacts a Directive and every country implements it differently or adds additional rules, this increases costs for those companies who want to do cross-border business", Rübig explained.

Rübig admits that some of the initiatives to cut red tape in the EU are starting to be successful: "Nobody questions the necessity of an SME test for new legislation anymore. The test just hast to be applied more consistently", he concluded.