The EU cuts Administrative Costs for Small Businesses
The European Commisssion has approved proposals for four measures which will cut some of the administrative costs for small and medium enterprises(SMEs). These measures are part of a package of 11 Fast Track Actions (MEMO/08/152) proposed by the Commission, as part of their second package of actions to reduce administrative burdens for Enterprises. The Commission has an ambitious Programme to reduce the administrative burdens on SMEs by 25%, by 2012.
The Commission estimates that these cuts alone will generate significant benefits of over €600 million - especially for SMEs. The measures are:
• Remove the obligation to publish business data in the national gazettes: In most cases, the publication of information linked to the company's setting up, to its capital and its financial situation means additional costs. The publication in a national gazette does not create real added value anymore given that company registries, since the beginning of 2007, have to make this information available online. These new central electronic business platforms can guarantee easy access to the information saving additional costs (amendment to Directive 68/151/EEC).
• Less costly translation obligations when opening branches in other Member States: It should be possible to re-use translations that have already been certified in one Member State, when a company has opened a branch abroad. Today’s proposal would contribute to lowering the cost of establishing new branches of companies and thereby give a very concrete positive signal to European businesses (amendment to Directive 89/666/EC).
• Less disclosure requirements in accounting for medium-sized enterprises: The proposal includes a possibility for Member States to exempt medium-sized entities, which often focus on only one business activity from the obligations to disclose unnecessary information in the notes to the annual accounts. This concerns the breakdown of net turnover into categories of activity and geographical markets and the formation expenses of the company (amendment to Directive 78/660/EC).
• Parent companies with no material subsidiaries no longer need to prepare consolidated accounts: By dropping this requirement, redundant work of preparing twice virtually the same sets of accounts will be abandoned. Therefore, the proposal clarifies the relationship between Directive 83/349/EC (consolidated accounts) and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
For more on this see http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/admin-burdens-reduction/admin_burdens_en.htm
The Fast Track Actions are described at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/08/152&format=HTML&aged=0&language=
EN&guiLanguage=en
Administrative Burdens Reduction On-Line Consultation
If you think some of the administrative burdens of the internal market are unnecessary, then tell the EU via their on-line consultation on http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/admin-burdens-reduction/index_en.htm
Situations where administrative burdens are unnecessary include:
• information requirements related to substantive requirements that have been dropped or modified (e.g. information obligation in road transport introduced when special permits were required for international transport)
• the reporting frequency is too high compared to the pace of events
• the reporting frequency and submission date set by different obligations are not aligned, for no good reason
• the same information is asked by different authorities
• the same information has to be submitted in different formats (e.g. in electronic and paper form)
• information requirements apply indiscriminately (i.e. even to those who play a very minor role in a domain)
• legal requirements are so complicated that you cannot understand what information you are supposed to collect and/or how to transmit it