The German federal government intends to introduce an “approval fiction” at the EU level, a key topic on the agenda of the informal council meeting held on Thursday at Schloss Alden Biesen in Belgium. According to government insiders, the chancellor argues that a new mindset of simplification and deregulation is needed to tackle the long delays-often lasting from months to years-that citizens and businesses face in approval procedures.
Under the proposed framework, a fixed deadline would be imposed on approval processes. If an authority fails to decide within that period, the approval would automatically be considered granted.
Another proposal from the chancellor’s office is a kind of “bureaucracy emergency brake”. It would give the Competitiveness Council-or the regular EU council-a recurring opportunity to review any EU‑level project that might involve excessive additional bureaucracy.
Concrete decisions are not expected this week; they will come at the next regular meeting of EU heads of state and government in March. Nevertheless, Berlin stresses that implementation of the measures should take place within the year, noting that upcoming national elections in France, Spain, Poland and Italy increase the urgency of reducing bureaucracy.