http://www.euronews.com/
Alex Taylor "We all hate annoying bureaucracy and a mindless filling
out of useless forms, whether it be on paper or on the net. Is the
European Commission doing anything to reduce red tape from our daily
lives or is it part of the problem? Here to answer your questions is the
EU Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration
Maroš Šefčovič. Did I pronounce your name right?"
Maroš Šefčovič: "Perfect, very good, very good pronunciation."
Alex Taylor: "You say Maroš....?"
Maroš Šefčovič: "Cheftchovitch"
Alex Taylor: "Cheftchovitch. OK right. You're ready to answer our citizens' questions?"
Maroš Šefčovič: "Absolutely, yes."
Alex Taylor: "First question to you from Rafael."
"I
want to know why the administration is so burdened with paperwork.
There's so much of it in relation to the administration; unemployment,
the school enrolment of children.... there's just too much! There are
plenty of Municipalities, lots of jurisdictions, regional and federal
and it's very difficult to understand it all here in Brussels."
Alex
Taylor: "We all thought that the internet was going to make things much
easier, less paper and so forth. It's not the case, why?"
Maroš
Šefčovič: "Not always but I have to agree with our citizen here that
sometimes we still have overlapping competencies, especially between the
local and national level and sometimes even the European one."
Alex Taylor: "Can't you do anything about that?"
Maroš
Šefčovič: "Yes of course. I think when I was in Westminster we had a
discussion how on we could reduce the bureaucracy and there was a
suggestion that we should use the British approach: one directive in and
one out. I said that we could have an even better approach: let's put
27 national laws in and replace them with one European law."
Alex Taylor: "Haven't we already been down that road?"
Maroš
Šefčovič: "I think that this is a concept that we have to follow in the
future because we can use European laws to replace most of the national
laws and to use e-government much better than we do right now and I'm
sure that the citizens would appreciate that."
Alex Taylor: "Well good luck on imposing that on the government. Second question from Alain."
"My
name is Alain, I am Belgian. I would like to ask the following
question: all European states have been requested by the European
Commission to make serious efforts to reduce public spending,
particularly in terms of operating costs and personnel costs. I wonder
if the European authorities are ready to make the same effort? Thank
you."
Alex Taylor: "Do you practice what you preach Mr Šefčovič? I
mean the European Commission last year asked for a 4.9% increase in its
budget."
Maroš Šefčovič: "Yes and you know why? Because 94% of
our budget goes back to the member states. So actually now we have a big
problem with unpaid receipts because we knew that in December we would
receive the invoices coming from the member states for good executions
of the program."
Alex Taylor: "Yes that's true but all psychologically when you ask everybody else to make reductions...."
Maroš
Šefčovič: "I think we would really appreciate the help of the media and
also the help of national politicians, to explain why we are asking for
the 4.6% increase, because now we have a complaint from the national
government that, 'how come the receipts cannot be paid?' When actually,
by the end of the year we will be short by 11 billion euros, which we
have to pay back to the member states.
"But I think that the
question the gentleman was asking about is what we do in the
administration, how big an effort we show. I think that the very
important thing to underline is that the administrative budget is only
less than 6% of the overall budget, so 94% goes back to the member
states. But nevertheless we appreciate how important this is and what I
have suggested is a 5% cut in the personnel. I have also suggested
prolonging working hours without pay increases and increasing the
pension age - all the measures which are actually taking place on a
national level as well."
Alex Taylor: "OK let's have a third question here on I talk and it's from Ignacio Martin."
"Good
morning. My name is Ignacio Martin, I'm Spanish. I would like to ask
the Commissioner: about the possibility of improving the integration of
the administrative systems on a European level, so that relations
between the European citizens will be easier and the bureaucratic
barriers between us can be reduced. Thank you very much."
