10
Mar
2025
Watch
Cutting red tape and simplifying business in the EU: the first Omnibus proposals (debate)
Madam President, the European Commission is today presenting its first omnibus proposals to cut red tape and make life easier for businesses. However, French business leaders expect much more than just regulatory grooming. In France, our artisans, farmers and industrialists are overwhelmed by an avalanche of standards and bureaucratic constraints. In five years, 850 new European obligations have been imposed, representing nearly 5,000 additional pages of regulation. Result: endless delays in obtaining a simple building permit, absurd steps to access public aid and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) penalised in the face of large companies, which have an army of lawyers to navigate this administrative labyrinth. A striking example: our farmers crumble under the demands of the CAP, while their non-European competitors benefit from more flexible rules. Our industrial SMEs, especially in the automotive sector, see their competitiveness weakened by absurd over-transpositions. We propose an administrative revolution, through a regulatory pause, the abolition of national over-transpositions and a right of derogation for the Member States. It is time to free our businesses from this bureaucratic asphyxiation and to empower our economies to grow and innovate.