Roughly half of the administrative burden for Dutch businesses arises from EU regulation. The Netherlands aims to reduce administrative burdens for businesses by 25 per cent. This is only possible if the EU also adopts a thorough approach. For this reason, since its EU Presidency in 2004, the Netherlands and like-minded Member States have been pressing for a systematic approach to reducing the costs resulting from European regulation.

The EU Better Regulation programme consists of an Action Programme to decrease administrative burden, a simplification programme (broader than administrative burden) and impact assessments for proposed legislation. The infrastructure and circumstances built up thus far are useful. Even so, the Netherlands and other Member States will have to exert constant pressure so that EU intentions are made more concrete and can be realised more quickly.

The Netherlands want Europe to make a / tangiblecontribution to our national objective and wants to see Dutch priorities in Brussels effectively and consistently brought forward. To stimulate this process the Netherlands have proposed a list of 62 reduction proposals, presented by Prime Minister Balkenende to Commission president Barroso.