A substantial part of Danish business regulation is influenced by international rules. According to Danish and Dutch measurements, approximately 40 pct. of the burdens on businesses stem from EU or other international regulation.
Therefore, Denmark is active at the international scene, promoting simpler and less burdensome rules. The international efforts are carried out through the formal channels of the EU as well through the more informal network of countries using the Standard Cost Model for measuring and reducing administrative burdens.
Better regulation in the EU
Denmark actively tries to influence the efforts for creating better regulation in the EU. The EU efforts concentrate on creating regulation that is well-founded, thoroughly analyses and sufficiently balanced. The activities follow a three-pronged approach, focussing at the same time on economic, environmental and social consequences.
Better regulation is a key part of the Lisbon Strategy which aims at turning the EU into the world’s most competitive economy. The better regulation efforts take place in the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament. The main instruments are better impact assessments, simplification of existing legislation and reduction of the administrative burdens on businesses due to EU legislation.
Read more about better regulation and the use of SCM in EU
Other international cooperation on better regulation for the business community
Denmark is also an active participant in the work of the OECD on ensuring better regulation for the enterprises. In the autumn of 2004 the OECD decided to make use of the Standard Cost Model for measuring administrative burdens. Denmark also participates in an informal international methodological network. The network was established in the spring of 2003 by the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Great Britain and Denmark. Since then also Finland, Belgium and Hungary have joined the network. The OECD participates as an observer. The countries have issued a common declaration on using the Standard Cost Model when measuring the administrative burdens for businesses. The network provides a forum for exchanging experiences on using the method, comparisons of completed measurements and identification of possible areas of simplification of legislation.
The members of the network have jointly prepared a guideline on how to use the Standard Cost Model. The advantage of using a common method is the possibility of making comparisons between identical measurements from the different countries. Currently, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark have all completed measurements of the administrative burdens associated VAT-regulation in the individual countries. We are currently comparing the results from these measurements. The idea is to share knowledge about the public regulation of the VAT area in order to identify best practise and furthermore to discover any possible proposals for simplification of the EU regulation on the VAT area.