13 EU states call on Brussels for a year of simplification and a 12-month pause on new rules

Austria and 12 other European Union member states are calling on Brussels to dedicate a year to simplifying existing legislation and to limit the adoption of new rules for 12 months. The proposal is included in an informal public policy document and does not currently bring about any changes for companies.

The initiative is supported by Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia. The document proposes a “European Year of Implementation and Consolidation”, focused on applying rules that have already been adopted, eliminating duplicate reporting obligations and reviewing legislation sector by sector.

The signatories are calling for the economic impact of new regulations to be assessed before adoption, and for European legislation to be introduced only when action at EU level is necessary and provides added value. The rules would be reassessed at least once every five years.

The discussion is also relevant to the tobacco industry. An EPIC report estimates that a possible TPD3 could have an annual impact of €47.6 billion on GDP, expose 120,000 jobs and result in an investment shortfall of €10.5 billion. These figures are scenarios, not impacts that have already occurred.