European Nations Fail to Ease Regulatory Burdens

The European Commission is notorious for cranking out new red tape, so it is somewhat ironic that the bureaucrats have been lecturing member nations to reduce their regulatory burdens. Presumably, the Commission thinks that supra-national regulations are good, whereas national regulations are bad. This does not make much sense, but it is a bit of a moot issue since national governments are refusing to make binding commitments for deregulation. As the EU Observer reports, the economic costs of excessive regulation are substantial:

EU industry ministers have dealt a blow to the European Commission's "better regulation" agenda by refusing binding targets to cut national bureaucracy which accounts for half of the bloc's administrative costs. … The commission believes red tape reduction would boost the EU economy with the equivalent of 3.5 percent of GDP and free up an estimated €150 billion for investment. But although there has been a lot of rhetoric in favour of the initiative, it is proving difficult to implement both at EU and national level. … While the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark argued in favour of the national red tape cuts, most other delegations were against any fixed goals. Mr Verheugen admitted the commission has no power to force the governments into anything more than they have agreed - given that national legislation and competences are at stake.