Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 23 October 2024 - Strasbourg

U-turn on EU bureaucracy: the need to axe unnecessary burdens and reporting to unleash competitiveness and innovation (topical debate)

  Kim Van Sparrentak (Verts/ALE). – Mr President, colleagues, can the EU do with less bureaucracy? Absolutely, yes. Two examples: we could implement the 'once only' principle so that companies and others only have to report information once, and getting access to EU funds for small youth organisations or social economy actors should be made a lot easier.

Slashing climate and nature laws, human rights obligations or data protection – I wouldn't think this is the recipe for competitiveness. Please stop playing the broken record of deregulation. Blindly getting rid of reporting obligations and last minute U-turns on implementation will only serve polluters, the cheaters and the multinationals to get a competitive edge over their competitors that wish to do business that is good for people and planet.

I think if we go further down this path, we better start preparing the obituaries for the level playing field that we are trying to create here. What businesses need is predictability, clarity and clear guidance in the implementation of the rules. So we do need to step up efforts in supportive measures and guidelines and companies need to count on enforcement, so that everyone plays by the same rules.