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# 52013DC0122

**COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITEE AND THE COMITTEE OF THE REGIONS Smart regulation - Responding to the needs of small and medium - sized enterprises /\* COM/2013/0122 final \*/**

  

Smart Regulation – Responding to the needs of
small and medium-sized enterprises

1.
Introduction

Small and medium-sized enterprises
form the backbone of the European economy, contributing significantly to innovation,
growth and job creation. In the EU, some 20,7 million SMEs employ 67% of the
private sector workforce. A recent study has shown that 85% of net new jobs in
the EU between 2002 and 2010 were created by SMEs. This clearly indicates their
importance for economic growth and job creation in Europe.[1]

SMEs can thrive best in a business
environment in which regulation respects the specific needs of SME while
pursuing its policy objectives. Regulation is necessary for the Single Market,
creating a level playing field by ensuring fair competition, contributing to human
health and safety and protecting the environment, workers and consumers. It is a
vehicle through which EU public policy aims are achieved bringing benefits to Europe's citizens. It needs to be designed with SMEs in mind.

Since the adoption of the Small
Business Act for Europe (SBA), cutting red tape and listening to the voice of
SMEs have been firmly embedded in the Commission's work. The Commission
Communication on 'Minimising regulatory burden for SMEs – Adapting EU
regulation to the needs of micro-enterprises' from 2011 takes this work a step
further. It builds on the “Think Small First” principle
set out in the SBA which requires that impacts on
SMEs be taken into account when designing legislation and that the existing
regulatory environment be simplified.[2] It established the possibility for
the exemption of micro-enterprises from regulation when justified and for
lighter regulatory regimes for SMEs.[3] More recently, the Industrial Policy
Communication[4] recommended simplification of the
regulatory and administrative environment, especially for SMEs and highlighted
the importance of a simple, stable and predictable long term regulatory
framework for investment in new technologies and innovation. Finally, the new
Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT), makes the identification
of simplification possibilities, unnecessary regulatory costs and areas for
performance improvement an integral and stable part of policy making and
programming.[5]

This Communication reviews progress
in:

·
applying the micro-enterprise exemption;

·
introducing lighter regulatory regimes for SMEs;

·
introducing the SME scoreboard;

·
ensuring regulatory fitness.

It also identifies the next steps that will be taken for SMEs in
policy making and programming.

2.
Exempting micro-enterprises from EU legislation

Before the European Commission
proposes new initiatives or revisions of existing EU legislation, comprehensive
preparatory work takes place. This starts with the publication of roadmaps
which inform stakeholders about possible Commission initiatives, available
evidence and planned preparatory and consultative work. These roadmaps contain
information on the initial problem definition, objectives, options and
preliminary assessment of impacts and the envisaged timetable. They are public
documents and a range of stakeholders – from SMEs to the social partners –can
and do provide their views on them.  The roadmaps also indicate when and how
stakeholders will be consulted.[6] The Commission assesses the potential
economic, social and environmental consequences of all its proposals with
significant impacts through impact assessments (IA). They contain different
options of how to address the problems, one of which has always to be the
"do-nothing" option. The IAs undergo an independent quality control,
before the Commission adopts its proposal.

Through the impact assessment
process, the Commission aims to avoid unnecessary regulatory burden.  It analyses
whether micro-enterprises can be exempted from the coverage of the initiative without
undermining the objective of the potential proposal.

Example of
SME exemptions that have been adopted by the EU legislator and are in the
process of being implemented by Member States:

o Small
shops selling electrical and electronic devices do not need to reserve extra
space to meet take-back obligations under the new Directive on Electric and
Electronic Waste[7].The take-back obligation only
applies to retail shops larger than 400m2.

Examples
of SME exemptions that have been proposed by the Commission and are now in the
EU legislative procedure:

o Manufacturers
responsible for less than 500 registrations of new passenger cars per
year are excluded from the obligation of having a CO2 target
according to the Commission proposal for a regulation amending Regulation (EC)
No 443/2009 on car emissions.[8]

o Certain
categories of vehicles driven within a radius of less than 100 km from the base
of their undertaking are proposed to be exempted from Regulation (EC) N°
561/2006 and therefore from the tachograph requirements.[9]

o It
is proposed in a new general Data Protection Regulation.[10] that
companies with less than 250 workers need not have a Data Protection Officer
and that specific measures must be considered for SMEs in the context of
Commission delegated acts aimed at further specifying the criteria for
assessing whether a Data Protection Impact Assessment is necessary..

o SMEs
with less than 250 persons would not need to comply with the requirement of the
Commission proposal on women in company boards[11], requiring companies that have less
than 40 % of non-executive directors to apply transparent selection procedures
based on neutral selection criteria in order to attain 40 % by 1 January 2020.

Impact assessments have also shown that it is not always possible
to exempt micro-enterprises. For instance, they cannot be excluded when there
is clear evidence that excluding them would mean that the regulation would not
be able to achieve its goals as e.g. to protect workers or consumers. They cannot
be exempted from EU Treaty requirements protecting for example fundamental
rights. Finally, they cannot be exempted where legislation specifically targets
small firms such as 'letter box companies'[12] which circumvent the law e.g. on
services and competition. For such cases where micro companies cannot be
excluded from legislative proposals, the analysis and reasons need to be
explained in the IA.

Limits
to possible exemptions:

-
When addressing the problem that EU minimum standards for worker
protection are circumvented through 'letter box companies'[13]
in the context of the Posting of Workers Directive, it was clear that
micro-enterprises could not be excluded. This was because such letter box companies
are, almost by definition, micro-enterprises and excluding them would have
undermined the main objective of the measure: stopping unfair commercial
practices and unfair treatment of employees.

-
In the Commission proposal for a new Regulation on drug
precursors, a general exclusion of micro-enterprises was impossible because
this would have created an easy route to undermine the objectives of the
legislation. Traffickers could have established themselves as micro-entities in
order to evade controls by the authorities. At the same time, the existing
regulatory framework already accommodates the particular needs of
micro-enterprises as the existing thresholds allow companies with sales or
purchases of drug precursors below certain quantities to be excluded from most
of the obligations.

3.
Emphasis on lighter regimes for SMEs

When exemptions are not possible, efforts
are made to tailor regulatory proposals to SMEs, for example; through the
introduction of a lighter set of requirements for smaller businesses, reduced
fees, etc.[14]

Examples of
lighter regimes for SMEs that have recently been adopted by the EU legislator
and have recently entered into force or are in the process of being implemented
by Member States:

-
SMEs are encouraged, but not obliged, to carry out an energy audit
according to the new Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU. Member States may
set up support schemes for SMEs, including if they have concluded voluntary
agreements, to cover costs both of an energy audit and of the implementation of
the highly cost-effective audit recommendations.

-
Micro-enterprises can now choose simpler ways of showing that any one-off
construction products they put on the market meet applicable product
standards according to Regulation 305/2011.

Examples of
lighter regimes for SMEs that have been proposed by the Commission and are now
in the EU legislative procedure:

-
The Commission has made proposals to make it easier for SMEs to
participate in public procurement. Bidders for public tenders can provide
self-declarations, rather than original documents or certificates, showing that
they meet eligibility criteria. Only the winning bidder would be asked to
provide the original documents. Breaking tenders down into smaller lots will be
encouraged. Together with a greater use of e-procurement, these modernised
rules in the proposed Public Procurement Directive[15]
would facilitate the participation of SMEs in contracts worth about 18% of
EU GDP.

In addition, some EU legislation
leaves it up to each Member State to decide whether it wants to introduce lighter
regimes for SMEs (for example, in the areas of information and consultation of
workers[16], food hygiene[17],
waste[18] and annual accounts[19]).

4. The SME Scoreboard

The Commission is issuing an annual scoreboard[20] covering
regulatory initiatives expected to have a significant impact on SMEs. This scoreboard
allows all interested parties, including the network of national SME Envoys, to
identify where and how progress on SME relevant legislation is being made at EU
level. It allows the progress of the legislative cycle from Commission proposal
through to implementation in Member States to be tracked. It identifies the
main issues involved and indicates the positions taken on them throughout the
legislative cycle, flagging if regulatory burden has been added or reduced at
the various stages from Commission adoption to implementation. Tracking
implementation in Member States will allow the outcome at the level that
directly affects business to be assessed in the light of best practice[21]. It will point
to how different approaches to implementation affect overall results.

The main legal acts and legislative proposals that
the scoreboard monitors closely were set out in the Report 'Minimising
regulatory burden for SMEs – Adapting EU regulation to the needs of
micro-enterprises' of November 2011[22].
Of the 13 initiatives listed, the Commission has adopted 3 proposals[23] which figure
in this year's scoreboard. The scoreboard also reports on other initiatives which
were identified in 2012 as having a significant impact on SMEs.

5.
Supporting and consulting SMEs

5.1       SME
Consultation – General Aspects

SMEs and organisations representing their interests are interested
to know what new regulatory initiatives are under consideration in the
Commission, what impact they may have and when they can make their views known
in the preparatory process. They have welcomed the publication of roadmaps and
many SMEs have asked to be informed earlier about upcoming consultations. The
Commission is updating its consultation standards and envisages the publication
of a rolling calendar of planned consultations on the 'Your Voice in Europe' website. It has also set up an alert mechanism under the Transparency
Register to inform stakeholders about roadmaps and upcoming consultations.

The Small Business Act has also established
strong governance mechanisms based on the close cooperation with Member States and SME stakeholders. The implementation of the SBA is now supported by the
SME Envoys, a network of high level representatives from Member States.  The
nomination of a single point of contact for all issues related to the SBA in
the Member States has reinforced the application of its principles and allows
Member States to exchange best practices. To involve stakeholders directly,
representative SME business organisations at European level participate as
observers in the meetings of the network. These activities aim to ensure that
regulatory burden reduction becomes a priority in the Member States through an
enhanced sharing of best practices. For example, the Network has been
instrumental in reducing the time to start-up a business in Europe[24].
Furthermore, the Commission has proposed that the appointment of an SME Envoy
and the implementation of the SME Test by Member States are introduced as
criteria for Member States to receive SME-related support from the European
Regional Development Fund[25].

Regular annual meetings between SME
associations and the Commission are also now held to identify and monitor SME
relevant priority initiatives in the Commission Work Programme (see Annex II in
Staff Working Document annexed to this Communication) for SME impacts.  The
Commission is using the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) to consult SMEs,
including micro enterprises, directly on forthcoming legislation ('SME Panel'
consultation) and to collect their feed-back on the existing EU legislation
('SME feed-back' database). Business organisations and Member States have
welcomed such developments as important for SME policy.

In addition, the Commission organised conferences with SMEs from Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, Poland and Italy in 2012. These conferences allowed
entrepreneurs from SMEs to raise their concerns, in different areas like labour
law, the regulation of the marketing of products and the related process of the
setting of European product standards confirming the compliance of products
with regulatory requirements, health and safety, environment, VAT and food
hygiene and labelling. The conferences also allowed face-to-face discussion and
the exchange of detailed information and positions. The information collected
is also being fed into the REFIT mapping and programming exercise.

The Commission is also consulting
SME employers organisations regularly through EU social partner consultations and
through the work of European social dialogue committees. SME associations have
been contributing actively to the definition and implementation of the work
programme of the European social partners 2012-2014.[26]

Finally, the SME
dimension has become a focus of the High Level Group on Administrative Burdens
(HLGAB), an expert group created in 2007 to advise the Commission on reducing
administrative burdens resulting from EU legislation. The Commission recently
extended the mandate of the Group until October 2014.[27] The Group
will advise on EU regulatory measures adopted by Parliament and Council under
the Administrative Burden Reduction Programme and look into how the 27 Member
States have implemented these measures.  SMEs will be consulted on the extent
to which the measures taken have made a real difference for them. This work
will facilitate the exchange of information between Member States on different
ways of implementing EU legislation and it will contribute to better
understanding of the final impact of measures adopted.

5.2       "TOP10"
Consultation

In an
EU-wide open internet-based consultation from October through to December 2012,
the Commission invited SMEs and organisations representing their interests to
identify ten areas or pieces or pieces of EU legislation that they considered
to be the most burdensome. They could choose from a non-exhaustive list or
freely enter other items.  They were not asked to justify or explain their
choice, although some chose to do so.  Nor were they asked to identify
precisely if the burden derived from EU or national law. The
consultation allowed SMEs to voice their concerns directly to the Commission.

The
Commission staff working document attached to this Communication summarises the
results of this consultation. The full set of responses is being assessed and
follow up actions will be spelled out as part of the Commission's Regulatory
Fitness Programme (see section 6 below)[28].

The TOP 10 Consultation produced a
total of 1000 responses[29] including from individual SMEs (over
600 responses from SMEs based in the EU, 40% of which were micro-enterprises)
and organisations representing SMEs interests at different levels in the EU (nearly
150 responses). Reactions were received from almost all EU Member States (with
more than half of the replies from individual SMEs in 3 Member States - BE, DE
and IT), and also from some non-EU countries, mainly Turkey.

Both the policy areas and the pieces
of EU legislation which were raised by the highest number of individual SMEs and
SME representative organisations are listed in annex III (see Staff
Working Document annexed to this Communication).

REACH (Registration, Evaluation,
Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals - Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006) was
the EU measure most often cited by both individual SMEs and the organisations
representing their interests. Both types of respondents also identified: VAT
legislation[30], the
General Product Safety Directive (Directive 2001/95/EC), the Directive on Recognition
of Professional Qualifications (Directive 2005/36/EC) and the Directive on Data
Protection (Directive 95/46/EC). Even though they identify different specific legislative
measures, both categories of respondent identified waste-related legislation[31] and
labour market-related legislation[32]. Legislation on equipment in road transport
for driving and rest periods (Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85); procedures for the
award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service
contracts (Directive 2004/18/EC), and the Modernised Customs Code (Regulation
(EC) No 450/2008) were also flagged in the TOP 10.

6.
Responding to SME Consultations

The Commission considers the results of consultation, to be important
signals of SME concern. It will follow up on these
consultations in various ways.

First, work is already in progress
on several pieces of legislation identified in the TOP 10 consultation:

-
Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of
Chemicals (REACH) - Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006: A
review was completed in 2012 and adopted early 2013. It was supported by
numerous thematic studies with an input from more than 1600 companies. The
review concludes that REACH functions well and delivers on all objectives that
at present can be assessed[33]. However, it also points out that
the share of burden in achieving the result has been disproportionate for SMEs
and that this issue has to be addressed as in the next phase of registration of
substances until 2018 will involve many more SMEs. In this context, the
Commission concludes that changes to the enacting terms of REACH will not be
proposed but it makes specific recommendations to reduce the impact of the
Regulation on SMEs. It should however be noted that a proposal to modulate
levels of fees to be paid to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) according to
the size of the company is being considered in the context of an amendment to
regulation (EC) N° 340/2008.

-
Common system of value added tax (VAT) – Council Directive
2006/112/EC: The Commission has launched a Communication[34]
towards a simpler, more robust and efficient VAT system tailored to the single
market. A package of measures has been proposed by the Commission in 2012 to
smooth the introduction of a mini-One Stop Shop in 2015 so that the taxation of
telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services are more SME-friendly
by allowing service suppliers to comply with their obligations in the whole of
the EU by submitting a single VAT return and payment in the Member State in
which they are established. The Commission will push for a broadening of this One
Stop Shop. A recent improvement is that since January 2013, legislation[35]
allows Member States to implement an optional scheme whereby businesses with an
annual turnover below EUR 2 000 000 can delay payment of VAT to the relevant
tax authority until they have actually received payment from their customers
("cash accounting"). The Commission has also driven forward
improvements to the Refund Directive to ensure it works as intended and allows
easier electronic submission of VAT refund claims.

-
Directive 2001/95/EC on general product safety (GPSD):
As part of the "Product Safety and Market Surveillance Package"
adopted on 13 February 2013, the Commission is proposing to repeal Directive
2001/95/EC and Directive 87/357/EEC concerning food-imitating products and
replace them by a Consumer Product Safety Regulation. Due to the subject-matter
and objective of the proposed regulation, SMEs cannot be exempted from
its requirements because rules aiming at protecting the health and safety of
persons must apply regardless of the size of the economic operator. However, the
package contains clear indications of the importance the Commission attaches to
the needs of small businesses and provides the guidance and assistance they
need to be able to comply with the rules.

-
Procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply
contracts and public service contracts - Directive 2004/18/EC: The
Commission has proposed a new Public Procurement Directive[36]
in 2011 which is still under discussion in the EU legislative procedure in Parliament
and Council. It would facilitate the participation of SMEs in contracts because
significant simplification introduced into the procedures, including self-declarations
and encouraging smaller lots.

-
Measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of
workers at work – Council Directive 89/391/EEC: The
Commission has launched a comprehensive policy evaluation in 2012 to
assess the relevance, effectiveness and coherence of the main Directive and
more than 20 daughter Directives. The results are expected in 2015.

-
EU Waste legislation: In 2013, the Commission will
start a comprehensive review of EU waste policy and legislation covering key
targets in the Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive and the
Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, an ex-post evaluation ("fitness
check") of five Directives dealing with separate waste streams and an
assessment of how the problem of plastic waste can be better tackled.

-
Working time directive – Directive 2003/88: The
Commission has carried out a comprehensive review of this Directive in 2010, on
the basis of which it concluded that a revision was necessary. The European
social partners responded to the consultation by agreeing to negotiate on the
terms of such a revision. However, the social partners have recently
communicated that such negotiations have been suspended without agreement. The
Commission is currently examining how to proceed.

-
Recording equipment in road transport for driving and rest periods
– Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85: In 2011, the
Commission proposed a new Regulation[37] which is
still under discussion in Parliament and Council. SMEs would benefit because certain
types of vehicles driven within a radius of less than 100 km from the base of
their undertaking would not need to have a tachograph installed.

-
Recognition of professional qualifications – Directive 2005/36/EC: In
2011 the Commission proposed a new Directive[38] modernising the current directive.
It is still under discussion in Parliament and Council. It would help SMEs
because it would facilitate mobility of workers by, among other measures,
introducing a European professional card. The card would make it easier and
quicker for the authorities of Member States which regulate those activities to
complete the formal processes for the recognition of the qualifications of
professionals obtained in other Member States. The success and timing of
individual recruitments can have a proportionately greater impact for smaller
operators.

Second, the results
will be taken into account in the mapping of EU legislation that
is being conducted under the recently announced Regulatory
Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT)[39]. REFIT
entails
as a first step the mapping of legislative and policy areas to identify any
excessive burdens, inconsistencies, gaps, ineffective measures and cumulative
effects so as to allow benefits to be attained in the most effective way.
Attention will be paid to possible regulatory burden resulting from the way
that EU legislation is implemented at the national and sub-national level. It
will take into account the specificities of SMEs and the importance of
regulatory stability as voiced in many of the SME consultations.

In some
cases, the results of the mapping will make it possible to announce that
a proposal to revise legislation can be quickly launched because there is clear
evidence of the need for regulatory cost reduction/simplification. In other
cases, a detailed evaluation may be needed because there is a general potential
for simplifying rules and reducing regulatory burden, but further assessment is
necessary.  In yet others, no immediate follow-up action may be needed, e.g.
where legislation/areas
of legislation are considered to be cost effective or where it is
too early to assess their results/cost effectiveness.

REFIT will
also ensure the coordination and prioritisation of the screening of the EU
legislative acquis started in 2011 to reinforce the application of the
"Think Small First" principle and to identify possible further
exemptions or burden reductions for SMEs, in particular micro-enterprises.

REFIT
multi-annual plans will be published and stakeholders and other
interested parties will be able to comment. This will thus
allow stakeholders, including SMEs and micro-enterprises to understand better and
contribute more to the work of the Commission.

The REFIT mapping and multi-annual planning
will take account of work to which the Commission is already committed, either
due to legal requirements in existing EU legislation for studies, evaluations
or reports, or as a result of its existing evaluation programming. 
The Commission is committed more broadly to evaluating regularly whether EU
legislation has achieved its objectives, and if there are simpler and cheaper
ways to get the same benefits, reaching the same
results.[40] It
will also examine whether SMEs find a piece of legislation easy to
understand and implement and what might need to be improved. Where potential
for lighter regimes is detected in such evaluations, this could trigger
revision towards more SME-friendly legislation, while respecting Treaty-based
consultation obligations in specific policy areas and taking due account of the
views of other relevant stakeholders.

7. Next
steps

The
Commission will continue to pay close attention to SMEs in its policy
development and review. The REFIT programme will be implemented progressively with
results, including the SME scoreboard published annually and open for
stakeholder comment. Consultations and dialogue between SMEs and the Commission
will be further improved through the SME Envoys, increased use of the Enterprise
Europe Network and SME conferences, as well as in the context of social partner
consultations. The Commission will further strengthen the ways it
obtains data and opinions from SMEs when it revises its guidelines on
evaluation and impact assessment in 2013 and 2014 respectively. This analytical
work requires a good evidence base and statistical data to fully account for
impacts on SMEs.

The governance and consultation mechanisms under the Small
Business Act for Europe will play a key role in the work to minimise regulatory
burden for SMEs and to ensure a broad-based consultation and involvement of SME
stakeholders, including the Member States.  The network of national SME Envoys
will continue to contribute in a significant manner to the monitoring of the
Commission Work Programme for impact on SMEs and to ensuring that the
regulatory burden reduction becomes a priority in the Member States through an
enhanced sharing of best practices. . Regular meetings with SME associations to
closely monitor the application of the 'Think Small First' principle in the
forthcoming Commission initiatives identified as priorities will continue. The
Commission will continue to strengthen the Enterprise Europe
Network (EEN) to enhance their capacity to provide explanations of EU
legislation, obtain SMEs opinion on EU legislation via SME Panels.

Taking the SME dimension into
account is a shared mission.  The European Parliament
and Council are invited to ensure not only that SMEs receive the benefit of EU
legislation but also that no unnecessary burdens on SMEs are added in the EU
legislative process. Member States are invited to use existing opportunities in
EU legislation to lighten any burden on SMEs.

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Commission Staff Working Document

SME Scoreboard

SME priority files in the Commission
Work Programme 2013

Results
of the Top-10 consultation

[1] http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/performance-review/files/supporting-documents/2012/do-smes-create-more-and-better-jobs\_en.pdf

[2] COM(2008) 394 final, page 7

[3] Commission Report
"Minimizing regulatory burden for SMEs - Adapting EU regulation to the
needs of micro-enterprises", COM(2011)803

[4] COM(2012)
582 final – Communication from the European Commission to the European
Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the
Committee of the Regions - A Stronger European Industry for
Growth and Economic Recovery

[5] COM(2012) 746 final  http://ec.europa.eu/governance/better\_regulation/documents/com\_2013\_en.pdf

[6] In the social policy field, for example, the Treaty makes the
consultation of the social partners mandatory before the Commission can submit
proposals.

[7] Directive
2012/19/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on
waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), OJ L 197/38, 24.7.2012

[8] Commission proposal for a
Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 443/2009 to define the modalities for
reaching the 2020 target to reduce CO2 emissions from new passenger
cars, COM(2012)
393

[9] Commission proposal for a
regulation amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 on recording equipment
in road transport and amending Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 of the European
Parliament and the Council, COM(2011)451

[10] COM(2012) 11

[11] Proposal for a Directive of the European
Parliament and the Council on improving the gender balance among non-executive
directors of companies listed on stock exchanges and related measures of 14.11
2012 COM (2012) 614 final.

[12] Letter box companies' are
companies which have been set up with the purpose of benefitting from legislative
loopholes while not themselves providing any service to clients, but rather
provide a front for services provided by their owners.  Such companies are
normally very small and often only operate a letter box, hence the name.

[13] Companies that are formally
established in a particular Member State not linked to their operations as a
means to avoid the regulation of another Member State.

[14] COM (2011) 803, page 6

[15] COM (2011) 896

[16] Directive 2002/14/EC
of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 march 2002 establishing a
general framework for informing and consulting employees.

[17] Regulation
(EC) No 178/2002 of the European  Parliament and of the Council of 28 January
2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing
the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of
food safety; Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 29 April 2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs; Regulation (EC) No
853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 laying
down specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin; Regulation (EC) No
854/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 laying
down specific rules for the organisation of official controls on products of
animal origin intended for human consumption.

[18] Directive 2008/98/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste

[19] Directive 2012/6/EU of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2012 amending Council
Directive 78/660/EEC on the annual accounts of certain types of companies as
regards micro-entities

[20] See Commission Staff Working
Document annexed to this Communication

[21] http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat\_general/admin\_burden/best\_practice\_report/best\_practice\_report\_en.htm

[22] See Annex II of the Commission
Communication COM (2011)803.

[23] Proposal for a revised
Directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of
personal data (COM (2012) 11) and Proposal for a revised Directive of the
European Parliament and of the Council on public procurement (COM (2011) 896).
The proposal for a revised Directive on waste electrical and electronic
equipment has already led to a revised Directive 2012/19/EU of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on waste electrical and electronic
equipment (WEEE).

[24] http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/business-environment/start-up-procedures/progress-
2011/index\_en.htm

[25] COM(2011) 615 final/2

[26] http://www.ueapme.com/IMG/pdf/EUSD\_work\_prog\_2012-2014.pdf

[27] http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat\_general/admin\_burden/ind\_stakeholders/ind\_stakeholders\_en.htm

[28] COM (2012) 746 final http://ec.europa.eu/governance/better\_regulation/documents/com\_2013\_en.pdf

[29] The full results of the
consultation have been published on the website Your Voice in Europe.

[30] Common system of value added
tax - Council Directive 2006/112/EC, Refund of value added tax to taxable
persons not established in the Member State of refund but established in
another Member State - Council Directive 2008/9/EC

[31] Shipments of waste -
Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006, Waste framework Directive - Directive 2008/98,
and List of waste – Commission Decision 2000/532/EC.

[32] Measures to encourage
improvements in the safety and health of workers at work – Directive 89/391/EEC;
the directive on Posting of Workers - Directive 96/71/EC;  and the Working time
directive - Directive 2003/88/EC were all referred to in the responses to the
consultation. In terms of ranking by individual SMEs and SME representative
organisations, Directive 89/381/EC was ranked 6th and 3rd
respectively; Directive 96/71 was ranked 19th and 8th respectively
and Directive 2003/88/EC was ranked respectively 5th and 7th
respectively.

[33] COM (2013) 49

[34] COM (2011) 851

[35] Directive 2010/45/EC

[36] COM (2011) 896

[37] COM (2011) 451

[38] COM (2011) 883 final

[40] COM (2012)746.
See further Section 7

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