Une Europe plus simple et plus rapide
Opinion factsheet
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- Affaires constitutionnelles et institutionnelles
- Regulatory policy
Opinion number:
CDR-0975-2025
Status:
Adoptés
Objective
Simplify and accelerate EU legislation while reducing administrative burdens and avoiding overly detailed rules.
Streamline EU legislation to reduce complexity and administrative burdens for citizens, businesses, and local and regional authorities (LRAs).
Enhance involvement of local and regional authorities (LRAs) in legislative processes, including implementation dialogues and reality checks to ensure legislation reflects on-the-ground realities.
Improve regulatory coherence and prioritisation, ensuring consistency between new and existing laws.
Reduce bureaucratic barriers, especially in cohesion fund management, to boost competitiveness and unlock economic potential.
Streamline EU legislation to reduce complexity and administrative burdens for citizens, businesses, and local and regional authorities (LRAs).
Enhance involvement of local and regional authorities (LRAs) in legislative processes, including implementation dialogues and reality checks to ensure legislation reflects on-the-ground realities.
Improve regulatory coherence and prioritisation, ensuring consistency between new and existing laws.
Reduce bureaucratic barriers, especially in cohesion fund management, to boost competitiveness and unlock economic potential.
Impact
In its follow-up report to the CoR opinion 'A simpler and faster Europe', the European Commission (EC) welcomes the CoR’s support for reducing administrative burden and simplifying the EU regulatory framework to increase Europe's competitiveness.
On the CoR’s recommendation to avoid asymmetric impacts across EU regions, the Commission agrees on the need to ensure that simplification proposals do not have unforeseen and potentially asymmetric effects on the various EU territories. It confirms that impact assessments and evaluations consider territorial impacts where relevant.
The EC fully supports the CoR's call for the systematic application of the SME test in European legislation, to assess the impact of the legislation on SMEs and justify support, simplification or exemption measures where appropriate. To this end, all impact assessment reports accompanying relevant initiatives for SMEs will include a compulsory SME test that will present in a clear and transparent manner the key impacts of proposals on SMEs. Evaluations and fitness checks will also systematically assess impacts for SMEs.
Regarding the CoR’s request for structured involvement of LRAs in the Commissioners’ implementation dialogues when discussing proposals that have regional and local implications. The EC underscores the importance of its new implementation dialogues and reality checks. It confirms that each Commissioner will hold at least two implementation dialogues per year, and that this engagement may be further supported through the involvement of local and regional authorities in relevant implementation dialogues. The Commission also stresses that the results of the implementation dialogues and reality checks will feed into the stress-test of the EU acquis to identify overlaps, inefficient and obsolete provisions.
The EC acknowledges the added value of the Fit for Future Platform and intends to build on the work already carried out, while not specify whether the platform will be renewed or if there will be a successor to the Fit4Future Platform. It also highlights the important contribution of the RegHub network, confirming that its inputs will continue to inform simplification efforts. In this context, the EC rather refers to the new Cooperation Protocol with the CoR, outlining specifically the collaboration on territorial impact assessments, rural proofing and foresight.
The EC follow up report received from Dir B Coordination unit is available at the following link https://eesccor.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/sites/DirectorateB/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7BA3FE49A9-DC63-4086-AE86-AD504E515E64%7D&file=SG%20CIVEX_3_JULY_2025%20final.docx&wdLOR=c7049AEF0-10D2-4FC0-AC2F-FEC908D5F6FE&action=default&mobileredirect=true.
On the CoR’s recommendation to avoid asymmetric impacts across EU regions, the Commission agrees on the need to ensure that simplification proposals do not have unforeseen and potentially asymmetric effects on the various EU territories. It confirms that impact assessments and evaluations consider territorial impacts where relevant.
The EC fully supports the CoR's call for the systematic application of the SME test in European legislation, to assess the impact of the legislation on SMEs and justify support, simplification or exemption measures where appropriate. To this end, all impact assessment reports accompanying relevant initiatives for SMEs will include a compulsory SME test that will present in a clear and transparent manner the key impacts of proposals on SMEs. Evaluations and fitness checks will also systematically assess impacts for SMEs.
Regarding the CoR’s request for structured involvement of LRAs in the Commissioners’ implementation dialogues when discussing proposals that have regional and local implications. The EC underscores the importance of its new implementation dialogues and reality checks. It confirms that each Commissioner will hold at least two implementation dialogues per year, and that this engagement may be further supported through the involvement of local and regional authorities in relevant implementation dialogues. The Commission also stresses that the results of the implementation dialogues and reality checks will feed into the stress-test of the EU acquis to identify overlaps, inefficient and obsolete provisions.
The EC acknowledges the added value of the Fit for Future Platform and intends to build on the work already carried out, while not specify whether the platform will be renewed or if there will be a successor to the Fit4Future Platform. It also highlights the important contribution of the RegHub network, confirming that its inputs will continue to inform simplification efforts. In this context, the EC rather refers to the new Cooperation Protocol with the CoR, outlining specifically the collaboration on territorial impact assessments, rural proofing and foresight.
The EC follow up report received from Dir B Coordination unit is available at the following link https://eesccor.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/sites/DirectorateB/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7BA3FE49A9-DC63-4086-AE86-AD504E515E64%7D&file=SG%20CIVEX_3_JULY_2025%20final.docx&wdLOR=c7049AEF0-10D2-4FC0-AC2F-FEC908D5F6FE&action=default&mobileredirect=true.
Essential points
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS (CoR)
- welcomes the Commission’s communication, which aims to streamline regulatory frameworks, reduce administrative burdens and accelerate the digital transition, as part of broader efforts to simplify EU legislation and adapt processes to needs at all levels;
- agrees that it is necessary to prioritise simplifying the regulatory framework to meet current strategic challenges.
- reiterates the need to reduce bureaucratic barriers to increase Europe’s competitiveness and unlock the potential of the regional and local economy, while maintaining democratic principles and the rule of law, as well as high social and environmental standards;
- welcomes the Commissioners’ implementation dialogues and calls on the Commission to involve local and regional authorities at the appropriate levels and in a structured way when discussing proposals that have regional and local implications.
- calls for a simpler and faster Europe also for the Cohesion Funds, whose administrative complexity is one of the main causes of implementation problems.
- recommends involving local and regional authorities in the Commission’s future ‘reality checks’, as they play a decisive role and can provide important information;
- supports the ‘one in, one out’ principle and the Commission’s omnibus packages. The Commission should also set priorities for which areas most urgently need new legislation and which legislation needs to be revised, and ensure that new and older acts are consistent with one other.
- encourages the Commission to renew the activities of the Fit for Future platform. Thanks to the participation of the CoR’s members and of the RegHub network, the Commission can obtain valuable information from local and regional experts on the implementation of EU legislation;
- stresses the importance of maintaining the distinction between directives and regulations;
- considers it necessary to clarify how input from the implementation dialogues will be addressed in the Commission’s annual implementation and simplification cycle. Specifically, it should be clarified how these dialogues contribute to the development of simplification measures and how they will be included in the Commission’s next work programme to ensure a continuous, structured process in which input and practical insights help to improve legislation on an ongoing basis.