The European Commission says its efforts to cut unnecessary administrative burdens are progressing well. They claim they are making the lives of businesses easier, in particular small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and strengthening European competitiveness.

The Commission has tabled proposals with a reduction potential well above the target of 25 % and is preparing new proposals bringing the total reduction potential to almost 33%.

The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said: "I am very glad about the good results of our efforts to reduce administrative burdens. They are part of our endeavours to support growth and jobs, and to improve the business environment through smart regulation in these difficult times. Considerable progress has been made, but we need to continue our hard work to get rid of unnecessary bureaucracy. I strongly hope that the proposals still pending before the Council and the European Parliament will be adopted rapidly, notably in the field of accounting, thereby lending a much needed hand to European businesses and in particular to the very small ones."

The target to reduce administrative burdens for businesses in the EU by 25% by 2012. That sounds promising, but the Action Programme was endorsed by the European Council in March 2007 after being proposed almost four years ago. The problem is that cutting red tape is a joint objective which can only be attained on the basis of a shared responsibility of the European Institutions and the Member States.

So while the Commission has proposed measures that reduce administrative burdens by more than 31%, the Council and Parliament have only agreed to a reduction of 21.8% and 9.3% are still pending.

The Commission has called on Council and Parliament to adopt the remaining proposals and encouraged Member States to implement EU law in the least burdensome way. But it is going to take them another year to draw up a report on best practice for doing so, which means that - for all the fine words - it will take some time before SMEs see many benefits from a lighter regulatory hand.