The European Commission’s Communication on “A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook” was published on 28 April. At a moment when Europe’s industrial competitiveness is under severe pressure from global competition, supply chain disruptions, volatile energy prices and an increasingly tense geopolitical environment, this Communication sets the right direction. Ceemet, representing Europe’s metal, engineering and technology-based industry employers, broadly welcomes this much-awaited initiative and its ambition to modernise how EU laws are designed, implemented and enforced.
What makes this Communication particularly significant is that it does not stop at the Commission’s own practices. It explicitly calls on the European Parliament and the Council to apply the same principles. This is a message that Ceemet has been conveying for years: better regulation is an institutional responsibility that all EU actors must share.
With the risk of repeating ourselves, better regulation is NOT deregulation
As an EU social partner, Ceemet has consistently maintained the position that the objective of simplification and better regulation is not deregulation. At this stage, it is undeniable that Europe needs clearer and more efficient rules. European employers and companies have been calling for regulations that achieve policy goals without creating unnecessary administrative burdens, and that can be properly applied by companies of all sizes, including the over 90% of MET sector companies that are SMEs.
The Communication’s commitment to “simplicity by design” – ensuring that those affected by a law can easily understand what the goal is, who must do what and when, how compliance is achieved, and what happens if obligations are not met – speaks directly to the needs of our, and many other European industries. Similarly, the emphasis on the “think small first” principle resonates strongly with MET industries, where the vast majority of companies are SMEs that must navigate the same regulatory requirements as large corporations. The commitment to setting realistic transposition and implementation deadlines is equally critical. Too often, businesses and national administrations are expected to adapt to major new obligations within timeframes that do not reflect the complexity of the changes required.
Stronger impact assessments delivered on a long-standing demand
Ceemet particularly welcomes the enhanced commitment to impact assessments. This is something we have been putting on the table for years. Equally important is the section on assessing significant amendments made by the European Parliament and the Council during the legislative process. Today, the co-legislators can and sometimes do substantially alter a Commission proposal, expanding its scope, without any obligation to assess the impact of those changes. This would be a meaningful step forward in ensuring accountability throughout the entire legislative cycle, not just at the Commission proposal stage.
Regulatory deep cleaning is welcome, but the social field is sadly absent
Ceemet supports the launch of the Regulatory Deep Cleaning Action Plan and the screening of EU laws across 12 priority areas. The comprehensive stress-testing of legislation to minimise compliance burden, address inconsistencies, and simplify EU laws is exactly the type of exercise we’ve been asking for and that is long overdue.
However, it is a missed opportunity that the social policy field is not among the 12 priority areas identified in Annex 1. Since the start of this mandate, no real simplification efforts have been undertaken in this domain. Yet companies, particularly those operating across borders, struggle daily with complex, overlapping, and inconsistent social legislation. Anyone who has tried to calculate the minimum remuneration applicable to a posted worker in a given Member State will understand the scale of the problem. We urge the Commission to extend the deep cleaning exercise to the social and employment acquis as a matter of priority in the coming period.
Single market enforcement and posting of workers taken seriously
Ceemet also welcomes the identification of 11 single market focus areas for enforcement. We have consistently called for stronger enforcement of existing rules rather than the introduction of new legislation, and we are glad to see this principle now being operationalised.
We are particularly pleased that the posting of workers is identified as a focus area. Ensuring the correct transposition of the Enforcement Directive and, in general, improvement of rules linked to the posting of workers will significantly improve the operations of European companies. In this context, we also hope that the e-Declaration trilogues will be completed and adopted swiftly, followed by implementation by Member States despite their voluntary nature.
At the same time, it is regrettable that the cross-border provision of services more broadly is not included in the enforcement focus areas. The MET sector does not only produce goods. Our companies install, maintain and repair machines across Europe, often deploying highly skilled workers for short-term assignments in other Member States. Many national certification and authorisation schemes for these services do not fully comply with the Services Directive, as the Communication itself acknowledges in the construction services focus area. We call on the Commission to extend this logic to the broader provision of industry-related services and to take concrete enforcement action where national rules create unjustified barriers.
Tougher infringement procedures are exactly what is needed
Ceemet strongly supports the measures announced to speed up and strengthen infringement procedures. Weak enforcement creates pressure for more legislation, which in turn adds more burden to bona fide companies that have already been complying with the rules. EU rules must be taken seriously by all Member States, and there must be consequences when they are not, for the good of European competitiveness.
Tackling gold-plating as a shared responsibility
Ceemet has also long drawn attention to the damaging effects of regulatory gold-plating, where Member States introduce stricter rules or wider scope than what EU law requires, creating uneven conditions for businesses and higher compliance costs. The Communication rightly identifies this as a significant barrier to the Single Market and proposes a toolkit of best practices to help Member States avoid it, including through the European Semester and the Single Market Enforcement Taskforce.
We also welcome the Commission’s commitment to take gold-plating risks into account when designing legislation, for example, by prioritising exhaustive regulations over directives in single market areas, reducing the room for national divergence.
The Simplification Platform should be lean and involve social partners
Ceemet also took note of the announcement of a new high-level expert group, the Simplification Platform, to support simplification and burden reduction. Ceemet would gladly be part of such a structure alongside other social partners. What matters now is that the Platform remains lean and operational, focused on concrete suggestions rather than becoming another layer of consultation. Employer organisations have direct knowledge of how rules affect companies and workers in practice, and this expertise should be central to the Platform’s work.
To conclude, the Communication is comprehensive and addresses many of the concerns that Ceemet and its members have raised over the years. The direction is right as simpler rules, stronger enforcement, better evidence, and genuine accountability across all institutions will only make the European economy and Single Market stronger. The challenge, as always, will be in the execution. Our industries will be watching closely to ensure that these commitments translate into tangible improvements on the ground.