The Commission has published a proposal on how it wants to
simplify company law, accounting and auditing. It hopes the
measures would remove or reduce a range of administrative
requirements that are considered outdated or excessive.
The consultation on the proposals will run until October
2007.
The Commission wants to interfere less in business conducted
within borders and wants to reduce reporting and auditing burdens
on small and medium-sized companies.
"If we want to enable European businesses to compete in today's
global market, we need to cut red tape," said Charlie McCreevy,
internal market and services Commissioner. "Many EU rules on
company law and accounting are more than twenty years old and place
unnecessary burdens on EU businesses. We now need to ask how they
could be improved to meet today's requirements."
Studies by the Commission have shown that costs in accounting
and auditing and company law are particularly high and it had
already marked those areas out for change. The Commission also
intends a review of Europe's single market, which could impact on
the same areas.
"In the general context of better regulation, the European
Commission has decided to simplify the regulatory environment for
European businesses, in co-operation with the European Parliament
and the Member States," said the Commission's communication. "The
objective is to ensure that Community legislation in the fields of
company law, accounting and auditing corresponds to today's
business needs and allows European businesses to compete more
effectively and to be more successful in a highly competitive
global environment."
"The initiative is linked to the on-going review of the single
market initiated by the Commission as part of the citizens' agenda
in May 2006. Furthermore, it forms part of the Commission
initiative aiming at reducing administrative burdens, especially
for SMEs," it said.
