The EU is asking small businesses to tell them where to cut red tape.
As part of its 'Partnership for Jobs and Growth' initiative to cut the burden of regulation, the European Commission has set up an online questionnaire in which companies and other interested parties may specify rules that provide the biggest obstacles.
As up to half of all regulations imposed upon firms in the UK derive from EU legislation, many small business owners and potential entrepreneurs have complained that excessive bureaucracy has inhibited their business growth and even prevented them from starting up.
The Commission now believes that asking firms to identify the most burdensome legislation and make suggestions as to how to simplify them presents the best way to make targeted reforms that will inspire sustainable growth, promote business investment and create new jobs.
"We are keen to hear which rules need to be simplified," said Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso. "This Commission has already come a long way to improve the regulatory environment.
"We have strengthened the consultation procedures, new legal proposals have to be subject to a rigid impact assessment and we are screening existing proposals and laws for its effectiveness. But there is more concrete action to come in the next months."
Responses to the online consultation will be compiled and examined in the Commission's 'Red Tape Observatory'. Applicable Commission services will individually analyse each comment.
To take part please visit the Commission's web site at http://europa.eu.int/yourvoice/consultations.
