The European Commission will take “more robust” legal action against EU countries that obstruct a drive to cut regulations and reduce market fragmentation, the bloc’s economy chief has said.
Valdis Dombrovskis said that a “revamped enforcement approach” is necessary to eliminate barriers to the free movement of goods and services across the bloc’s 27 member states, and to prevent national capitals from “gold-plating” EU rules by introducing laws beyond those required by Brussels.
“We are… stepping up our work on enforcement,” Dombrovskis said on Tuesday, adding that this will involve the use of “faster procedures, more automaticity, and also potentially higher penalties”.
“At the end of the day, rules [achieve] the desired results when they are properly implemented,” the Latvian commissioner said.
The push to “simplify” the EU’s regulatory landscape comes as part of wider efforts to revive the bloc’s flagging economy, which is being buffeted by high energy prices, US tariffs, and fierce competition from Chinese exporters.
It also comes amid a sharp decline in Brussels’ use of so-called infringement procedures against national governments in recent years.
A report published last year by Bruegel, a Brussels-based EU policy think tank, found that infringement cases have fallen by around 50% over the past two decades, from a peak of 1,332 in 2007 to 658 in 2024.
The study also noted that the decline “cannot be explained by a rise in informal resolution or a commensurate fall in complaints”, but instead “may reflect deeper institutional and organisation[al] weaknesses”.
This analysis has been echoed by Enrico Letta, a former Italian premier, whose landmark 2024 report on the single market lamented the “slow pace” of infringement proceedings “and the inadequacy of penalties to serve as a genuine deterrent against future violations”.
Dombrovskis, who presented the Commission’s “Better Regulation Communication” in Strasbourg on Tuesday, said that the average length of infringement cases closed in 2025 was three years, with one-fifth lasting over five years. “That’s why we want to really accelerate those procedures,” he said.
He also stressed that the EU executive will step up efforts to curb gold-plating – a practice fiercely denounced by Letta but staunchly defended by labour unions, who argue that it allows governments to raise labour standards to levels beyond those mandated by Brussels.
Gold-plating “creates barriers, raises costs, and fragments the single market”, Dombrovskis said. “More is not always better here.”
Additional reporting by Victoria Becker.
Source:
www.euractiv.com