European businesses are far more likely than US firms to cite regulation as a major obstacle to doing business. Not only do firms find it hard to enter markets and expand in the EU, they also struggle to adapt and modernise their businesses. As Europe searches for ways to boost economic growth and frets about its competitiveness, the EU needs to ensure its regulations encourage better productivity and more innovation. In recent decades, EU leaders have repeatedly committed to the ‘better regulation’ agenda. ‘Better regulation’ is a set of practices to ensure that EU regulations are evidence- based, made in a transparent and inclusive way, and are as simple and targeted as possible to reduce unnecessary burdens. Better regulation supports productivity and innovation by ensuring new laws are properly targeted and well-designed. That means unnecessary compliance costs are minimised, firms remain as free as possible to innovate and experiment, and regulation does not impose barriers on more productive firms mounting challenges to less productive incumbents.
Author: Zach Meyers, Assistant Director, Centre for European Reform.
This text has originally been published on the CER website.
