Priority areas

These priority areas were selected based on a 2006 pilot study , comparing measurements conducted in Czech Republic , Denmark, Nederland and United Kingdom , as well as information provided by the Member States and stakeholders.

The selected priority areas cover the legislative requirements that account for the vast majority of the administrative costs facing business. This allows the Commission and the responsible legislators to concentrate their efforts and resources on areas where the most significant impact on improving the regulatory environment for business can be made. However, the corresponding modifications should only be made where they do not jeopardise the underlying objectives of the legislation. At a later stage, the Commission may decide to extend the Programme to other areas that are currently not included as part of the priority list.

For a full list of regulations and directives under review, please see the overview [27 KB] .

Results per priority area

Each priority area section contains the results of the ongoing baseline measurement project. As the project continues, more results will be published or updated.

Currently, the following information is available for each priority area:

• regulations and directives under review;
• businesses affected by the legislation;
• mapping and identification of Information Obligations (IOs) at EU level.

Results of the mapping of EU legislation

For the 41 pieces of legislation examined, 340 EU Information Obligations have been mapped and the largest number has been found in the priority areas of annual accounts / company law (74 IOs) and financial services (53 IOs).

Priority Area	Total number of IOs and possibilities	Of which possibilities*
Agriculture and agricultural subsidies	9	0
Annual accounts/company law	74	30
Cohesion policy	6	0
Environment	45	2
Financial services	53	4
Fisheries	12	1
Food safety	38	0
Pharmaceutical legislation	37	1
Public procurement	9	1
Statistics	8	0
Tax law (VAT)	34	9
Transport	8	0
Working environment/employment relations	7	0
Total	340	48

* A possibility is an instance where EU legal acts mention the possibility or option for Member States to ask for additional information. For example, "…Member States may require the inclusion of other statements in the annual accounts in addition to the documents referred to in the first sub-paragraph …"

Prioritisation of information obligations

Each of the identified IOs at EU level has been prioritised based on the expected number of entities concerned, cost level, and complexity. All IOs with high priority, and some of the IOs with medium priority, are specifically addressed in the interviews and workshops held with business. For the other IOs, the administrative costs are assessed by holding interviews with experts.

• *** Priority high
• ** Priority medium
• * Priority low