Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Commission follow-up to the ‘Top Ten’ consultation of SMEs on EU regulation

Small and medium-sized enterprises are essential to economic growth and job creation. The Commission has taken a range of actions over the years to support them and continues to strengthen its actions.

This includes the decision of November 2011 to make a concerted effort to lighten the regulatory load on SMEs. As part of this effort, the Commission asked SMEs throughout 2012 through conferences and consultations to identify the EU laws and areas of legislation that they consider most burdensome. They contributed actively. Based on these responses, the Commission produced a list of EU legislative acts considered by SMEs and stakeholder organisations to be the most burdensome.

The results of this initiative, called the 'Top Ten', together with a number of other actions being taken by the Commission, were announced in the March Communication on "Smart Regulation - Responding to small and medium-sized enterprises". Member States were also informed of the results via the SME Envoy network. The Commission committed to a direct and immediate follow up to SME concerns. The European Council welcomed this initiative and invited the Commission to report back by June. This report indicates the follow-up actions on the main results of the consultation, in response to that request.

The success of the 'Top Ten' initiative requires that the co-legislators and Member States join the effort. Many Commission actions are contained in legislative proposals that the co-legislators are now examining. The Council and the European Parliament need to ensure that the SME friendly provisions in these proposals are maintained and that unnecessary burdens are not inadvertently added in the decision making process.

This is not a one-off effort. It forms part of the larger REFIT exercise announced in the Commission Communication on EU Regulatory Fitness of 12 December 2012. Through Refit the Commission will continue to act to lighten regulatory burden and simplify legislation across the board, taking a broad range of stakeholder input into consideration.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)446: Follow the progress of this communication through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:446:FIN

ESO: Background information: Commission wants to simplify life for SMEs by easing the top 10 most burdensome EU laws http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-commission-wants-to-simplify-life-for-smes-by-easing-the-top-10-most-burdensome-eu-laws/

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