BRUSSELS — The European Union’s drive to chop crimson tape is creating uncertainty for enterprise and chaos within the EU’s establishments, Government Vice President Teresa Ribera mentioned on Thursday, in feedback that put her squarely at odds along with her boss Ursula von der Leyen.
“In too many events we’ve got this sense that it’s not simplification however [a] messy mixture of issues that finish in uncertainty,” Ribera mentioned in Brussels. The Fee’s dealings with EU member nations and lawmakers have degenerated into “a horrible political spectacle,” she added.
The remarks by the Spanish socialist characterize probably the most critical pushback by a prime EU official since von der Leyen launched a large effort to simplify the bloc’s regulatory rulebook after being confirmed for a second time period a yr in the past.
This has taken the type of a sequence of “omnibus” packages — on points starting from enterprise provide chains to agriculture funding and migration — which have emerged from the EU’s coverage equipment with little or no session. The EU ombudsman has slammed the Fee for procedural shortcomings in proposing the measures, saying they amounted to “maladministration.”
Ribera, who ranks second on the EU government behind its German president, acknowledged in a keynote speech that it was essential to keep away from duplication, align procedures, transfer quicker and supply larger readability to companies. However this could not go too far.
“Deregulation eliminates safeguards, it places prices onto residents and taxpayers, creates uncertainty, discourages funding,” she mentioned at an occasion hosted by suppose tank Bruegel.
“It’s a type of Trumpist strategy in opposition to being steady, dependable and predictable. It weakens our requirements. It lowers the credibility of the one market, it enlarges inequalities and distortions.”
Von der Leyen made the case for deregulation in a speech final month in Copenhagen.
“Once we have a look at simplification, all of us agree we want simplification, we want deregulation,” she mentioned.
However Ribera cautioned in opposition to that on Thursday. “Simplifying guidelines just isn’t the identical as weakening protections or giving up on regulation,” she mentioned.
Lawmakers within the European Parliament earlier this month agreed to exempt extra firms from inexperienced reporting guidelines after the center-right, right-wing and far-right teams allied to move the EU’s first omnibus simplification bundle.
Louise Guillot contributed reporting.