Public Administration Minister Gregor Virant said following Friday's meeting with European Enterprise and Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen that the EU and national governments have a joint responsibility for cutting red tape for enterprises.
Slovenia supports the Commission's goal to reduce administrative costs for companies by 25% by 2010, Virant said during his visit to Brussels.
The country will moreover try to simplify procedures and improve the administrative frameworks for companies in national legislation, he added.
Virant admitted that Slovenia had been "holier than the Pope" in some areas and sometimes enacted overly strict provisions when trying to comply with EU standards.
A typical example is safety at work, where Slovenia implemented extremely high standards. But these standards now overreach the requirements and create needless operating costs, Virant noted.
The country is therefore lowering its standards to the EU level in environmental protection, environmental impact assessment and work safety. The government already lowered standards for issuing haulage licences.
Slovenia also expects the European Commission to file an initiative to reduce European standards as well.
The Public Administration Ministry is also collecting proposals from citizens, employees, entrepreneurs and others on ways to improve the existing regulations and simplify procedures, Virant said.
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