WRITTEN QUESTION E-0871/00 by Alejandro Agag Longo (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Setting up businesses.
Date: 2000-03-22
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU policy, administrative formalities, business start-up, joint competence

C 374 E/176

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

28.12.2000

(2000/C 374 E/207)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0871/00

by Alejandro Agag Longo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(22 March 2000)

Subject: Setting up businesses

According to OECD figures, the number of statutory documents needed to set up a business in the
Member States of the EU varies between two or three in Denmark and 28 in Greece.

Does the Commission consider that these differences between the Member States encourage the setting up
of new businesses, especially by young people? Does the Commission intend to take any practical steps to
remedy this evident distortion of the single market?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(26 April 2000)

The Commission shares entirely the concern of the Honourable Member over the regulatory burdens
involved in setting up a business that continue to exist in a number of Member States, and regards the
simplification of the formalities involved in business start-up as a priority.

That is why, while recognising that this is primarily a matter for national governments, the Commission
has encouraged Member States, in its BEST report (1), to address this problem and has supported their
efforts to find simpler and better solutions.

The BEST report calls on Member States to facilitate the creation of enterprises. Under the follow-up (2) to
this report, the Commission is monitoring and evaluating progress made by the Member States, and is also
sharing information about good practices. The Commission will report on the follow-up later this year.

Further, under its concerted actions (3),
the Commission assists Member States in exchanging good
practices. A good example is the French (cid:145)Centres de formalitØs d(cid:146)entreprises(cid:146), which have greatly simplified
procedures for start-ups. Moreover, there is encouraging evidence of Member States learning from each
other(cid:146)s experience. For example, the Portuguese (cid:145)Centro de Formalidades das Empresas(cid:146) network, which has
reduced normal start-up times for businesses from around six months to around fifteen days, exploited the
French experience.

Benchmarking is an important tool to show differences and progress, and the Commission will continue
benchmarking between Member States in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation.

(1) Report of the Business Environment Simplification Task Force. This report can be found on Internet: http://

europa.eu.int/comm/dg23/gen_policy.

(2) Action plan to promote entrepreneurship and competitiveness. This can be found on Internet: http://europa.eu.int/

comm/dg23/gen_policy.

(3) Outlined in the recent report to the Council and Parliament on concerted actions, adopted by the Commission on

9 November 1999, COM(1999) 569 final.

(2000/C 374 E/208)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0877/00

by Karin Riis-Jłrgensen (ELDR) to the Commission

(16 March 2000)

Subject: Unlawful State subsidy to the DSB

Passenger transport between Copenhagen and ˘ro is provided by two carriers, one a privately owned bus
company and the other a rail link operated by the DSB (Danish Railways).