Simplifying EU legislation

One of the priorities of Finland’s work to influence EU policy is simplifying regulation and improving the efficiency of its implementation. Simplifying legislation plays a key role in strengthening the EU’s strategic competitiveness.

Finland emphasises the importance of consistency and a long-term perspective in the work on better regulation. In Finland’s view, efforts to promote better regulation require close cooperation between the EU institutions and the Member States. A significant portion of Member States’ national legislation is derived from EU regulation. As such, the special characteristics of the Member States should be better taken account when EU regulation is drafted.

Overall, Finland wants to see clearer and lighter EU regulation. Finland supports the Commission’s goals of simplifying regulation and reducing the administrative burden.

Commission to issue series of proposals for simplifying regulation

As part of its work programme, the European Commission has published a communication on the simplification and implementation of EU policies and laws. The communication sets out how the Commission intends to promote the practical implementation of EU legislation, reduce the administrative burden and simplify EU rules over the next five years.

The Commission plans to issue a series of legislative proposals to simplify EU regulation in different areas, thereby reducing the administrative burden on companies. These legislative proposals are known as Omnibus packages.

The first Omnibus package aims to simplify the regulation on sustainability reporting. The Government will present its views on this and subsequent packages in Union communications to Parliament.