EU Commission Work Programme: "EU plans to cut red tape are not yet enough"
Date
17 Oct 2023
Sections
Innovation & Enterprise
Frankfurt/Brussels, 17 October 2023 – Thilo Brodtmann, Executive Director of the VDMA, comments on the expected work programme of the EU Commission:
"It is good that reducing bureaucracy is one of the priorities of the EU Commission's work programme. Excessive requirements and reporting obligations have become an unbearable burden for businesses and threaten the competitiveness of Europe as a business location. The EU Commission seems to have recognized this and the proposals in the work programme are small steps in the right direction. But they are mainly aimed at reporting obligations and simplification through digitalization. Unfortunately, this is not a great success. The Commission is treating the symptoms rather than the causes.
The problems for industry are not just the reports, but the many intrusive and sometimes confusing detailed requirements that slow down innovation and hamper entrepreneurship. In order to make the EU a competitive place to do business and to reduce the burden on enterprises, the EU needs a fundamental return to a moderate and innovation-friendly regulatory style."
A photo of Thilo Brodtmann, VDMA Executive Director, can be found here.
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VDMA represents more than 3600 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and SMEs. The companies employ around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. In the European Union, it represents a turnover volume of an estimated 770 billion euros. Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.