Government welcomes business-led plan to cut EU red tape
The government has welcomed business-led proposals to cut back on EU red tape.
A task force six UK business leaders, including M&S chief executive Marc Bolland and Kingfisher boss Ian Cheshire, has made 20 recommendations after consulting with over 100 business voices across Europe and drawing on over 250 ideas for EU reforms.
Commenting on the proposals, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Business people, particularly owners of small firms, are forced to spend too much time complying with pointless, burdensome and costly regulations and that means less time developing a new product, winning contracts or hiring young recruits. I’m determined to change that and to get the EU working for business, not against it.”
The group focused on barriers to growth in five areas of business activity – from starting out, to exporting, to expanding, to developing new products, to overall competitiveness.
Never Miss a Retail Update!Proposals for cutting EU red tape include scrapping requirements for small businesses in low-risk sectors to keep written health and safety risk assessments and reforming employment law where it prevents firms from creating jobs.
Other proposals include fast-tracking measures to set a maximum cap on the fees that can be applied to card, internet and mobile payments and boosting e-commerce by simplifying labelling requirements and improving standards for cross-border parcel delivery.
Cheshire said: “We need to consolidate the single market if Europe is to compete globally. European rules start with good ideas but can lose their way when they are implemented. This can have unintended and damaging consequences for business and growth. When you have a vast footprint in Europe, and if you’re trading across multiple EU borders, smooth implementation and certainty of a level playing field is what is needed.”
Bolland added: “With this report we’ve been seeking the broad voice of business, in particular focused on SMEs, to maximise growth opportunities.”
The other task force members are Glenn Cooper, managing director at ATG Access, Louise Makin, chief executive of BTG, entrepreneur and angel investor Dale Murray, and Paul Walsh, former chief executive of Diageo.
