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Document 52025IR0975

Opinion of the European Committee of the Regions – A simpler and faster Europe

COR 2025/00975

OJ C, C/2025/4414, 29.8.2025, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/4414/oj (BG, ES, CS, DA, DE, ET, EL, EN, FR, GA, HR, IT, LV, LT, HU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, FI, SV)

ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/4414/oj

European flag

Official Journal
of the European Union

EN

C series

C/2025/4414

29.8.2025

Opinion of the European Committee of the Regions

A simpler and faster Europe

(C/2025/4414)

Rapporteur-general:

Jelena DRENJANIN (SE/EPP), Member of Huddinge Municipal Council

Reference document:

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – A simpler and faster Europe: Communication on implementation and simplification

COM(2025) 47 final

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS (CoR)

A simpler and faster Europe

1.

 welcomes the European Commission’s communication on A simpler and faster Europe, 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;

2.

 agrees that it is necessary to prioritise simplifying the regulatory framework to meet current strategic challenges. This includes the security policy context, as well as the digital, green and demographic transitions. In addition, the EU needs to strengthen its capacity to respond to rapid changes, uncertainties and global events, through agile and adaptive mechanisms. These priorities should guide the legislative process, at all stages, while communication from the Commission should be both clear and easily accessible, translating into effective and measurable implementation delivering visible impact at local and regional level;

3.

 welcomes the Draghi report, which highlights barriers that affect Europe’s competitiveness and limit its economic potential and prosperity, and stresses that action needs to be taken to address the increased complexity and accumulation of regulatory frameworks within the EU;

4.

 points out that, if EU policies are to deliver results, one key condition is for priorities to be set regarding what legislation should be drafted and when, and these priorities should then remain stable over time. Both an overly ambitious, but also a constantly changing agenda is very challenging to adapt to, both for public authorities and for businesses and individuals. Strategic foresight plays a key role in making EU legislation more effective and future-proof by exploring possible future trends and challenges to ensure that EU policies are designed to be simple, practical and easy to implement;

5.

 reiterates the need to reduce bureaucratic barriers in order 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. Points out that, cities and regions, because of their proximity to citizens, should play a more active role in identifying administrative obstacles and proposing solutions;

6.

 highlights the need to ensure a level playing field and prevent unfair competition and crime. To avoid these issues, any simplification exercise should adopt an evidence-based approach throughout all phases of the decision-making and legislative process. It is important to produce impact assessments analysing the impact of proposals in different regions.

Ensuring EU policies deliver results

7.

 welcomes the Commission’s ambition to step up its efforts to improve the implementation of EU legislation in the Member States in order to ensure that EU policies deliver results and highlights that regional and local authorities are key partners in this respect; notes however that effective delivery also depends on the clarity, coherence and proportionality of EU rules themselves;

8.

 highlights that local and regional authorities are not just key players in the implementation of up to 70 % of EU policies, but also play an important role in developing new EU legislation and reviewing existing EU legislation in accordance with the principle of active subsidiarity;

9.

 points out that a well-functioning national, local and regional administration is fundamental if the EU acquis is to function effectively and deliver the desired results; in this connection, highlights the usefulness of the Commission’s ComPAct initiative, which strengthens administrative capacity at national, regional and local level;

10.

 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. This is essential to ensure that the perspective and needs of local and regional authorities are adequately represented and met. The CoR is ready and willing to facilitate the organisation of such dialogues in the EU’s municipalities and regions;

11.

 calls on the Commission to systematically involve regional authorities with legislative powers in the implementation dialogues, thereby recognising their specific role in the transposition and implementation of EU law;

12.

 stresses that EU funding for education and training initiatives and digitalisation efforts is of particular importance so that local and regional authorities are able to adapt quickly to future regulatory frameworks. Digital tools and automated processes, such as transaction-based reporting, are necessary for effective reporting. Early guidance is needed to facilitate implementation and ensure this is carried out in an equitable manner. It should be easy for both public authorities and businesses to do things correctly;

13.

 underlines that EU legislation must be designed such that it is easy to understand and apply, without heavy administrative burdens, but at the same time achieves the objectives set. The EU must therefore not just become simpler and faster, but above all smarter;

Making Europe simpler and faster

14.

 welcomes the fact that various initiatives are being reviewed to reduce the administrative burden and prioritise new simplification measures. Simplification should be implemented and its benefits reaped not only at EU level, but also in Member States, regions and cities, to ensure consistent, efficient and effective public policies at all levels. Administration and reporting requirements are burdensome and costly not just for businesses but also for local and regional authorities;

15.

 notes that a number of pieces of legislation have produced extensive administrative burdens for both public authorities and businesses. Acts worth highlighting here include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), procurement legislation, the EU taxonomy, State aid rules, and environmental and climate acts;

16.

 sees significant potential for public procurement rules to contribute to sustainability and resilience; Underlines that the upcoming new legal requirements must be proportionate, present a balanced administrative burden and not impair the essential function of procurement;

17.

 also calls for a systemic approach to the growing number of procurement-related requirements and reporting obligations set out in other sectoral dossiers. Welcomes the CoR’s decision to prepare an Outlook opinion on procurement. A new, coherent reporting framework is needed to streamline data collection, including automated sustainability reporting, by moving from the current outdated notification-based system to a transaction-based one;

18.

 calls for a simpler and faster Europe also for the Cohesion Funds, whose administrative complexity is one of the main causes of implementation problems. Many municipalities and regions have raised concerns about unnecessary administrative burdens when applying for and reporting back on funds. There is a need for harmonisation of rules and procedures among the various funds and for a simpler regulatory framework with not so many different initiatives and funds, greater local flexibility and a single set of rules for beneficiaries. This simplification cannot mean a recentralisation or renationalisation of the cohesion policy which could hamper its efficiency;

19.

 considers it important that the Commission simplifies the administrative procedures for beneficiaries of the Structural Funds and provides a common simplification guide to reduce bureaucratic burden in the management of funding, while respecting the fundamental principles of the cohesion policy: shared management with regional programmes, multi-level governance, place-based approach and partnership;

20.

 considers that cohesion policy reform should not reduce the participation of regions and cities in favour of states, under the pretext of simplifying administration or increasing bureaucratic scrutiny. On the contrary, more direct management of regional policy by regional and local authorities would speed up the implementation of the funds, improve their efficiency, allow for greater control with fewer resources, reduce implementation times and ultimately improve the implementation of EU policy. This would also be a good example of real administrative simplification at all levels of government, from local to European;

21.

 similarly, highlights the need for sufficient pre-financing, in order to enable many beneficiaries to start projects, as many municipalities do not have the necessary resources to offer advances. A performance-based model must lead to real simplifications for the final beneficiaries;

22.

 considers it essential to adapt the procedures for accessing European programmes to the administrative and financial capacities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), promoting simplified participation models, one-stop shops for information and technical support at local and regional level;

23.

 recommends involving local and regional authorities in the Commission’s future ‘reality checks’, as they play a decisive role and can provide important information. Local and regional authorities are in close contact with local SMEs and other administrative bodies and can therefore contribute their practical experience with the impact of EU legislation at local and regional level;

24.

 supports the ‘one in, one out’ principle and the Commission’s omnibus packages. In the context of the development of new legislation, it should be reviewed whether previous regulations are still relevant. 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. Being overly ambitious by revising a large number of acts at the same time poses a major challenge for both public authorities and businesses in terms of adaptation;

25.

 believes that strategic foresight is important in this context, and that the fast track procedure should only be used in exceptional situations. It is a tool that is important to be able to use when justified but, if it is used too often, there is a risk of producing watered-down and conflicting legislation that reduces efficiency and creates implementation difficulties for both local and regional authorities and businesses;

Improving how we make new rules

26.

 considers active subsidiarity principle and the Commission’s better regulation guidance and tools to be important starting points in the process of streamlining and gaining backing for EU legislation;

27.

 calls for local and regional authorities to be involved to a greater extent in EU legislative processes, and considers it important for this to be done in a structured manner; therefore encourages the Commission to engage in regular dialogue to ensure that EU policies are effective and are adapted to local contexts;

28.

 once again draws attention to the important work undertaken in its Better Regulation and Active Subsidiarity Steering Group (BRASS-G), which aims to create synergies between the CoR’s better regulation and subsidiarity tools (subsidiarity monitoring, territorial impact assessments, rural proofing, strategic foresight and RegHub evaluations);

29.

 underlines the importance of transparency in the legislative process; in this regard, encourages the Commission to renew the activities of the Fit for Future platform, which has been a tool for strategic and analytical work. The platform produced opinions aimed at simplifying new and existing EU legislation and reducing unnecessary implementation costs. 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;

30.

 stresses the importance of maintaining the distinction between directives and regulations, in line with the TFEU, and warns against the trend towards making greater use of regulations; calls on the Commission, as far as possible, to use directives where regulations are difficult to adapt to national circumstances such as administrative systems and national legislation. Stresses that the increasing use of European regulations, to the detriment of directives, may weaken the adaptability of regional administrations particularly in the case of regional authorities with legislative powers. It is essential to preserve a margin of national and regional adaptation to ensure the effective application of Union law;

31.

 points out that excessively detailed regulations containing procedural rules, along with short and inconsistent deadlines, risk undermining the simplicity and effectiveness of legislation, as they are difficult to implement in a local context; points out, in this connection, that the subsidiarity and proportionality principles are important in the legislative process in order to reduce the risk of suboptimised processes at local and regional level;

Way forward: partnership and co-ownership

32.

 endorses the Commission’s proposal that the way forward is to strengthen partnership and co-ownership, and agrees that the involvement of regional and local authorities is necessary to turn ambitions into practical action;

33.

 highlights that strengthening the role of the RegHub network could contribute to the swift and effective assessment of the implementation of EU legislation, and encourages the Commission and the European Parliament to make use of the RegHub evaluation report in their work on better regulation; reiterates its call on the European Commission to make use of CoR outlook opinions when assessing the implementation of existing policies and also when designing new policy proposals;

34.

 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;

35.

 takes the view that the involvement of regional and local authorities can provide important information to ensure that simplification proposals do not have unforeseen and potentially asymmetric effects on the various EU territories. Territorial impact assessments are a tool that can be used for this purpose. Proposals may inadvertently favour certain regions or municipalities over others and may exacerbate regional disparities;

36.

 points out that, as highlighted by the Task Force on Subsidiarity, Proportionality and ‘Doing Less More Efficiently’, simplification measures must include provisions ensuring fair distribution; calls for a balance to be struck between swift action and thorough consultation of stakeholders, in line with the Commission’s guidelines and tools to ensure high quality; notes that the omnibus packages were developed very quickly, making it difficult to gain backing for and manage the proposals adequately;

37.

 calls both on national authorities and on local and regional ones to apply the equivalent principle of simplification when implementing EU legislation at their level. By focusing on good and simple legislation and setting clear obligations for individuals and businesses, the competent authorities can create a more efficient and transparent regulatory framework that imposes less of an administrative burden and better meets the different needs of local communities and businesses;

38.

 calls for the SME test to be systematically applied in European legislation, so that we can assess the impact of the legislation on this group and justify support, simplification or exemption measures where appropriate.

Brussels, 3 July 2025.

The President

of the European Committee of the Regions

Kata TÜTTŐ

ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/4414/oj

ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)

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