I-talk presenter Alex Taylor “We all hate annoying bureaucracy and a mindless filling out of useless forms, whether it be on paper or on the net. Is the European Commission doing anything to reduce red tape from our daily lives or is it part of the problem? Here to answer your questions is the EU Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration
Maroš Šefčovič. First question to you from Rafael.”

“I want to know why the administration is so burdened with paperwork. There’s so much of it in relation to the administration; unemployment, the school enrolment of children – there’s just too much! There are plenty of municipalities, lots of jurisdictions, regional and federal and it’s very difficult to understand it all here in Brussels.”

Alex Taylor: “We all thought that the internet was going to make things much easier, less paper and so forth. It’s not the case, why?”

Maroš Šefčovič: “Not always but I have to agree with our citizen here that sometimes we still have overlapping competencies, especially between the local and national level and sometimes even the European one.”

Alex Taylor: “Can’t you do anything about that?”

Maroš Šefčovič: “Yes of course. I think when I was in Westminster we had a discussion how on we could reduce the bureaucracy and there was a suggestion that we should use the British approach: one directive in and one out. I said that we could have an even better approach: let’s put 27 national laws in and replace them with one European law.”

Alex Taylor: “Haven’t we already been down that road?”

Maroš Šefčovič: “I think that this is a concept that we have to follow in the future because we can use European laws to replace most of the national laws and to use e-government much better than we do right now and I’m sure that the citizens would appreciate that.”

Alex Taylor: “Well good luck on imposing that on the government. Second question from Alain.”

“My name is Alain, I am Belgian. I would like to ask the following question: all European states have been requested by the European Commission to make serious efforts to reduce public spending, particularly in terms of operating costs and personnel costs. I wonder if the European authorities are ready to make the same effort? Thank you.”

Alex Taylor: “Do you practice what you preach Mr Šefčovič? I mean the European Commission last year asked for a 4.9% increase in its budget.”

Maroš Šefčovič: “Yes and you know why? Because 94% of our budget goes back to the member states. So actually now we have a big problem with unpaid receipts because we knew that in December we would receive the invoices coming from the member states for good executions of the program.”

Alex Taylor: “Yes that’s true but all psychologically when you ask everybody else to make reductions….”

Maroš Šefčovič: “I think we would really appreciate the help of the media and also the help of national politicians, to explain why we are asking for the 4.6 percent increase, because now we have a complaint from the national government that, ‘how come the receipts cannot be paid?’ When actually, by the end of the year we will be short by 11 billion euros, which we have to pay back to the member states.

“But I think that the question the gentleman was asking about is what we do in the administration, how big an effort we show. I think that the very important thing to underline is that the administrative budget is only less than 6% of the overall budget, so 94 percent goes back to the member states. But nevertheless we appreciate how important this is and what I have suggested is a five percent cut in the personnel. I have also suggested prolonging working hours without pay increases and increasing the pension age – all the measures which are actually taking place on a national level as well.”

Alex Taylor: “OK let’s have a third question here on I talk and it’s from Ignacio Martin.”

“Good morning. My name is Ignacio Martin, I’m Spanish. I would like to ask the Commissioner: about the possibility of improving the integration of the administrative systems on a European level, so that relations between the European citizens will be easier and the bureaucratic barriers between us can be reduced. Thank you very much.”

Alex Taylor: “It’s what you were saying before Commissioner. Are some countries simply more bureaucratic than others?”

Maroš Šefčovič: “I think yes but I wouldn’t like to make some kind of comment.”

Alex Taylor: “Come on, name names! Which ones? Are the Latin ones more bureaucratic than the Nordic ones?”

Maroš Šefčovič: “I think it really depends. I would base my evaluation on the efficiency of the administration and then you really see…

Alex Taylor interrupts: “How do you measure that? In terms of public happiness?”

Maroš Šefčovič: “No, I would say that there are models where we can measure the efficiency or the capacity of administrations in the member states. Really I’m very close to them but there is the Greek administration, Italian administration, I also have to say the Slovakian administration, which is a surprise for me being from this country. Usually you have quite efficient administrations from Sweden, Denmark and from the countries….”

Alex Taylor: “So you do you have their names?”

Maroš Šefčovič: “Yes, so you do see very good models and we can see the models where really we can improve things.”

Alex Taylor: “Ok. Well Sophie from Belgium has a question which is particularly close to your heart. Listen.”

“Hello my name is Sophie, I come from Brussels and I have a question for you Mr Commissioner: in relation to the European citizens’ initiative, if we reach one million signatures, how can we be certain of the real impact, in relation to decisions taken in Europe?”

Alex Taylor: “Now this is something we are going to hear about more and more. A million citizens, it was in the Lisbon Treaty – if they sign from different countries on a particular initiative, then the European Commission must take notice of it but will it translate into acts?”

Maroš Šefčovič: “I think it will very much depend of course on the subjects of such initiatives because it’s quite clear that if one million citizens push for something it’s quite clear they are setting the agenda for the political debates and for the very serious exchange of views on this particular topic. What we have to do after one million signatures are collected is to organise a hearing together with the European parliament, to look at the proposal from all aspects and then the European Commission has to adopt the communication that clearly states what we are going to do. Are we going to legislate? Which I’m sure in many cases, will be the case. Or, do we need some kind of further information or impact assessment?”

Alex Taylor: “So you have to answer every initiative, that’s a yes or no?”

Maroš Šefčovič: “We answer every initiative which passes the threshold of one million validated signatures.”

Alex Taylor: “OK right, let’s have a final question on I talk for the Commissioner.”

“Hello, my name is Tabata and I’m Belgian. We often hear about male/female parity and so I was wondering if within the European Commission, you enforce these laws?”

Alex Taylor: “It’s quite fair in the European Commission, I’ve had a look, a similar number of men and women. How about generally in the administration? It’s much more tilted towards men.”

Maroš Šefčovič: “I think that when we started with equal opportunities policies within the European Commission there were a very low number of women working at the executive or management positions, therefore we adopted the strategy on how to significantly improve the situation. By 2014, we would like to have 25 percent of senior managers to be women, we would like to have 30 percent of the Commission’s managers to be women and we want more than 43 percent of the executive officials to be women. Today, this morning I had a staff forum with our officials and I was presenting the latest figures and I am absolutely sure that we are going to exceed the numbers because today, they are very very close to these targets.”

Alex Taylor: “Just a general question about administration, is there such a thing as a European Ombudsman? Somebody who people can complain to if they find they’re not happy with a particular form of bureaucracy?”

Maroš Šefčovič: “There is Mr Diamandouros and he is a very active ombudsman and he’s my very close partner in sorting out the different kinds of cases of maladministration.”

Alex Taylor: “He presents things to you and you act on them?”

Maroš Šefčovič: “Yes, he presents things to us and he’s very persistent I can assure you, so we have to respond to any requests he presents to us. We are always trying to sort things out in a mutual, forthcoming way and he also presents regular reports to the European Parliament on how we co-operate and on how happy he is with our co-operation.”

Alex Taylor: “Mr Šefčovič, thank you very much indeed for having answered our questions. We’ll see you next time for another subject on I-talk.”

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