The European Parliament majority group EPP wants the next Commission to devolve more than two-thirds of EU spending to boost the bloc’s economic competitiveness, according to a draft work plan seen by Euractiv, set to be adopted during the group’s convention in Portugal, starting on Tuesday (2 July).
The “5-point plan for a strong Europe” follows much of the centre-right’s EU election manifesto but specifies some of its core demands in more detail.
Unsurprisingly, a “European competitiveness strategy” ranks high on the EPP’s agenda – including calls to cut red tape, boost international trade, and complete the Capital Markets Union by boosting investments into securitisation and risk capital such as private equity and venture capital markets.
For the EU’s next seven-year budget period, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and starting in 2028, the group wants to “establish a competitiveness mainstreaming” of EU spending, “with the mandatory target of spending 70% of the EU budget on competitiveness.”
The group’s laser focus on competitiveness plays on themes that have become prominent in Brussels since EU policymakers tasked former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta and former ECB president Mari Draghi with mapping out economic policy recipes for the bloc last year.
It also builds on Ursula von der Leyen’s 2023 pledge to slash companies’ reporting obligations by 25%. Following up on its own manifesto proposal on “reducing the regulatory burden by one-third“, the group now specifies that this target should be reached by the next five years – by the end of the incumbent legislative term in 2029.
For that goal, the EPP wants to “halt implementation” of reporting requirements within the bloc’s two corporate sustainability laws: the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) “and only go ahead after a review to significantly reduce reporting duties”.
Furthermore, the group wants a “stocktaking of the combined effect of EU legislation on businesses” centred around “implementation costs sector by sector” as well as an “Omnibus-Regulation for simplified and fast permit procedures.”
The idea for such an ‘omnibus law’ – a measure changing multiple other laws at once – stems from the “Antwerp declaration for a European Industrial Deal”, initiated by chemical industry lobby group CEFIC in February and signed by over 1,250 European companies, business groups and trade unions since then.
French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire also supported the idea, calling in April to “drastically simplify European rules and standards.”
Regarding Commission portfolios linked to economic policy, the centre-right would like to see a “stand-alone portfolio” on trade – a post currently held by the Commission Executive Vice-President “for an Economy that works for people” Valdis Dombrovskis – as well as the appointment of a new commissioner “for SMEs and Better Regulation”.
The EPP’s draft follows similar agendas to be adopted by the centre-left S&D and liberal Renew Europe group and outlines priorities for the upcoming Commission’s mandate.
[Edited by Anna Brunetti/Alice Taylor]
