Red tape cutting target: save 150 billion euros

Setting out to “make a real difference to European businessmen,” the EU’s commissioner in charge of enterprise and industry has launched the latest phase in a programme to cut red tape.

Guenter Verheugen said the Commission would propose that the bloc’s leaders fix a joint red tape reduction target of 25 percent by 2012.

That is equivalent to a savings of 150 billion euros or boosting the bloc’s economic activity by 1.5 percent, the Commission said.

In better scrutiny of future EU measures, the Commission has also pledged to see whether the benefits of possible legislation outweigh any new costs.

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