Austria, together with ten EU countries, has proposed pausing the development of new EU-wide laws for 12 months. The initiative is being put forward as a “year of simplification”: during this time, according to the authors of the appeal, Brussels should focus not on new regulations but on reviewing existing rules and their practical implementation.
The document, which Politico has seen, was signed by Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Denmark, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Portugal, and Hungary. Austrian Minister for Europe Claudia Bauer stated that the EU should not continue putting forward new legislative initiatives until previously adopted norms are fully implemented.
According to Bauer, the European Commission’s current work on cutting red tape is largely “after the fact”: first the EU adopts new rules, and then it issues separate packages to simplify their application. The Austrian side proposes changing this approach — assessing the necessity and consequences of regulation before a law is adopted, including in terms of its impact on the competitiveness of the European economy.
The authors of the initiative also propose reviewing new regulations every five years. Such an audit should show whether the rules remain relevant, whether they actually help achieve the stated goals, and whether they create an excessive administrative burden for EU countries, businesses, and citizens. The document emphasizes that this is not about deregulation, but about a “general cleanup” of European legislation.
