Honourable Chair, honourable Members. First of all, thank you for the invitation to present the Commission's first ever Overview Report on Simplification, Implementation and Enforcement.
This report, which was adopted by the College together with the 2026 Commission Work Programme in October, is a key element of the Commission's reinforced annual reporting to the European Parliament and the Council.
In addition, each Member of the College has published their individual Annual Progress Reports on Simplification, Implementation and Enforcement under their respective portfolios.
This is in line with the Political Guidelines and mission letters, which task every Member of the College with delivering far-reaching simplification in his or her area of competence.
Some of those individual reports have already been discussed with the responsible Parliamentary Committee and/or Council formation.
Every Executive Vice President and Commissioner stands ready to do so.
Coming back to the Overview Report, it summarises the main results of our work across those three areas – simplification, implementation and enforcement – in line with the President´s political guidelines, the mission letters, and our Communication on implementation and simplification 'A Simpler and Faster Europe'.
The report presents the progress that has already been made and how simpler, clearer, and better-enforced rules are crucial pieces of the puzzle to improve Europe's competitiveness and the functioning of our Single Market.
We are placing particular emphasis on engaging with the Parliament and the Council – at all levels – to deliver on these goals.
I am pleased with the increased attention that both institutions are giving to how EU rules work in practice and can be improved.
Together with deepening our Single Market and closing the innovation gap, a simpler, lighter, and faster regulatory framework is one of the key catalysts to enhance Europe's competitiveness.
In this context, simplification, implementation, and enforcement go hand in hand, and are key priorities for the Commission – based also on the strong support from Member States and this House.
By removing regulatory bottlenecks and streamlining processes, the EU is enhancing the effectiveness of its measures.
This helps accelerate the transition to a more resilient, dynamic and innovative economy, better able to deliver on our economic, social and environmental goals.
The Commission has set ambitious targets for reducing administrative burdens for businesses by at least 25%, and by at least 35% for SMEs.
This means reducing administrative burdens by EUR 37.5 billion by the end of this Commission mandate.
The Commission is taking decisive steps towards this objective:
Up until July 2025, which is the cut-off date for this Overview Report, we put forward six Omnibus packages on sustainability reporting, due diligence and taxonomy, investment rules, common agricultural policy, chemicals, defence readiness, and small mid-cap enterprises.
Together with other simplification initiatives that the Commission has tabled in the same period, these omnibus proposals are set to achieve EUR 8.6 billion in reducing recurring administrative cost savings for companies and administrations.
These proposals also bring almost EUR 4 billion in one-off savings for businesses and administrations.
The final savings will however depend on the outcome of the legislative processes.
In that context, we have called on the co-legislators to consider at least maintaining the overall level of ambition, paying due attention also to the impacts of substantial amendments.
More recently, the Commission has presented the digital omnibus simplifying rules on data, cybersecurity, and Artificial Intelligence – accompanied by the Data Union Strategy, and a proposal for European business wallets.
Further simplification proposals are planned for adoption shortly – in the coming weeks – including on certain aspects of the environmental acquis, automotive industry, food and feed safety, and medical devices.
As I mentioned earlier, the Overview Report was published on the same day as the 2026 Commission Work Programme.
More than half of the next year's initiatives will focus on making EU law simpler, clearer and easier to implement.
Several omnibuses and other proposals will simplify rules across key sectors, including energy and energy product legislation, taxation, defence, competitiveness and innovation, and burdens for citizens.
In addition, the Commission is gradually stress-testing the entire body of the EU acquis, including implementing rules.
This testing aims to identify opportunities to codify or consolidate legislation, remove duplications, address inconsistencies, and further simplify EU rules.
Through these tools, we are following on the strong calls from the European Parliament and the Council to deliver far-reaching simplification and ensure that our laws remain fit for purpose.
To complement our efforts and improve the transparency of legislative outcomes, we are also calling on the European Parliament and the Council to assess the impacts of substantial amendments, in line with the interinstitutional agreement on better law-making.
To that end, we stand ready to work with both Institutions and we recently shared a first note suggesting three possible building blocks to develop a common approach that should be practical and pragmatic – meaning fit to improve the information available to the co-legislators without unduly delaying the legislative process.
Honourable Chair, honourable Members, I will now turn to the topic of implementation.
For people and businesses to enjoy the benefits of our common rules and to have their rights protected, EU law must be implemented and applied fully and correctly everywhere in the EU.
To identify obstacles impeding a seamless implementation, and to understand how to best support Member States and stakeholders in this task, it is key to listen to those directly affected by the rules.
To that end, we have taken several actions.
The main novelty has been the launch of Implementation Dialogues, as a new consultation tool.
In the period covered by the report, the Members of the College held 28 Implementation Dialogues, engaging with over 550 diverse stakeholders – including industry representatives; SMEs; social partners; central, regional and local authorities; and civil society – from all Member States.
All information on the participants and conclusions from each dialogue are available at a central repository in the Commission's website.
Participants appreciate the format.
It facilitates direct access to Commissioners on a given topic, in a structured manner, and allows them also to hear from each other.
For the Commissioners, the Dialogues are proving helpful in identifying best practices, listening to evidence and views from the ground, and hearing suggestions on what could be improved.
In addition, the Dialogues are also serving to identify opportunities for simplification.
In this regard, the Dialogues are not replacing our standard consultation tools – including notably the calls for evidence and public consultations – but are proving to be a useful complement to those.
More broadly, the Commission remains convinced that cooperation with Member States is the fastest way to improve implementation and address identified challenges.
That is why we have strengthened implementation support – not only to ensure legal compliance, but to help meet targets, achieve objectives, and deliver on our policies.
For instance, the Commission introduced in April 2025 a transposition roadmap IT tool to improve information flows between the Commission services and Member States.
These roadmaps are meant to help anticipate challenges in the transposition process.
In only three months, this new feature was used by Commission services and a few Member States – who are testing the system – for 21 directives.
Another example is the Just Transition Platform, which is helping 32 regions and 14 Member States most affected by our changing climate, by providing them with advisory services on adaptation.
Having just said that cooperation with Member States tends to be the fastest and most efficient course of action, I also want to make very clear that the Commission also believes in resolute enforcement action.
The third section of the Overview Report sets out the major trends and figures as regards the Commission's enforcement actions, and provides examples of the positive outcomes achieved for people and businesses.
Over the reporting period, the Commission has pursued far-reaching infringement procedures to protect not only our Single Market, but also our fundamental rights, and other rights of citizens and consumers.
In some instances, the Court has already adjudicated, while in others, the procedures before the Court are ongoing.
The information on enforcement in the Overview Report is complemented by a revamped online presence on the Europa website.
Live since April, it provides a wealth of information and data on infringement cases, pre-infringement dialogues and transposition of directives, as well as interactive maps and customisable graphs.
A pre-infringement dialogue, formerly known as 'EU Pilot', is used by the Commission when it is likely to lead to swifter solutions than a formal infringement procedure.
It also helps to gather information about the existence of a breach of EU law.
The figures speak for themselves:
There has been an increase in the use of pre-infringement dialogues and they have proved their efficiency, with a resolution rate of 67%.
As regards infringement procedures, the Commission launched 373 new cases, of which 87% referred to an incomplete or incorrect transposition of a directive.
The Commission closed roughly the same number of infringement procedures - 345 - so the stock of ongoing cases has remained rather high, with around 1,500.
As regards Court referrals, the growing trend of previous years has continued, with 45 new referrals over the reporting period.
Moreover, in 15 cases, the Commission requested financial sanctions, meaning in all the cases where the Treaties provided so.
Advancing the open cases remains a top priority for the Commission, with special attention to long-standing cases.
All these figures and the examples in the Overview Report show clearly that the Commission is pursuing ambitious enforcement action.
To conclude, Honourable Chair, honourable Members.
At the start of the year, we set out a vision for a simpler and faster Europe, to significantly lightens the regulatory load for people, businesses and administrations, and improves the implementation of our policies.
This implies a shift in how we approach our work, in the attention we give to this task, and in how we allocate our resources.
As outlined in the Political Guidelines and mission letters, each Member of the College is responsible for delivering simplification in his or her area.
In turn, achieving our simplification objectives also requires a shared commitment among all EU institutions, and in particular the European Parliament and the Council as co-legislators.
But simplification alone is not enough.
Our rules must also be properly implemented by Member States.
And when this does not happen, this leads to enforcement action.
People and businesses will not judge us by the number of directives and regulations we adopt, but by whether those rules deliver tangible benefits in their daily lives, without creating undue administrative burdens.
Thank you very much.
I look forward to hearing your views and hope to count on your support to make this simplification and implementation agenda a success.
