"Brussels backs down from ‘no deregulation’ pledge"

EU officials had previously explicitly denied that the bloc’s “simplification” agenda is tantamount to deregulation, as many independents analysts and unions argue it is

The European Commission refused to confirm on Monday that its previous commitment to “simplify” EU legislation without “deregulating” remains intact, after Ursula von der Leyen emphasised the importance of “deregulation” to boost growth and private investment last week. 

“We all agree we need simplification, we need deregulation. We need it on the European level. Actually, we also need it on the national level,” von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

EU officials had previously explicitly denied that the bloc’s “simplification” agenda is tantamount to deregulation, as many independent analysts and unions argue it is.

Asked by Euractiv on Monday whether the Commission has changed its simplification push to also include deregulation, Commission deputy spokesperson Arianna Podestà said that “the focus of this Commission has been on simplification”.

Pushed by journalists during Monday’s press briefing on whether the Commission uses the terms ‘simplification’ and ‘deregulation’ interchangeably, Podestà said that she is not “an expert in the English language. I don’t want to say anything wrong in that sense.”

“Working on simplification doesn’t mean that there’s a change to the objectives that we’ve been striving to achieve,” Podestà said, adding that the Commission is not seeking to do away with environmental rules either. 

Podestà also referred reporters to another speech von der Leyen gave in Italy on Friday, where the Commission chief said that easing bureaucracy should happen through “simplifying”, “not by tearing down our legislation, agreed rules that give you certainty and predictability in your work.” She did not use the word “deregulation” in Friday’s speech. [...]