Former European Commissioner Věra Jourová suggested that artificial intelligence should identify excessive regulation within the EU. The need to reduce significantly the regulation of European business is obvious — especially to cut the burden on small and medium-sized enterprises, she emphasised.
The European Commission is coming up with a plan to simplify regulation of the digital sector. It intends to present the details by the end of the year. How does the former Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for EU Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, who left office in November 2024, view these efforts?
“I am a little disappointed that Ursula von der Leyen announced ‘simplification’ and did not go as far as ‘deregulation’. I expected that to happen,” Ms Jourová said at the Law and Digitalisation conference. Ekonomický deník and Česká justice, sister portals to EU Perspectives, organised the conference.
She recalled that the European Commission under Jean-Claude Juncker had already made efforts to simplify complex European regulations and directives. In 2014-2019, Ms Jourová was Commissioner for Justice, Consumer Policy, and Gender Equality, before moving on to serving as the Commission vice-president (2019-2024).
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She described the European Commission’s approach to regulation between 2014 and 2024 with a Czech proverb that says that a hundred times nothing will kill even a donkey. Although most new European legislative acts claim that they will have a minimal impact on small and medium-sized enterprises, also represent a financial burden of several thousand euros per year.
“Just count how much that is in total for European companies, how many directives we have already issued,” she recalled her work in the Commission. She admitted that other members of the Commission mostly “turned a deaf ear” to this kind of criticism. “I didn’t make any friends with this approach. The Commission machine needs to constantly improve the world with new regulations,” Ms Jourová said.
At the beginning of 2024, she suggested to the current Commission President von der Leyen that it was necessary to radically simplify European legislation to make it much more business-friendly. In particular, she suggested looking at older regulations that no longer correspond to current economic trends.
Scepticism about Commission’s plans
“I am sceptical about the Commission’s current proposals to simplify the rules,” she added. Von der Leyen proposes to repeal around 25 percent of European rules. “I don’t know how the Commission intends to measure this. I don’t know a single Brussels official who would say: This directive of mine deserves a repeal or simplification,” warned.
Before leaving the Commission in November 2024, Ms Jourová called for the development of an artificial intelligence tool specifically designed to simplify European legislation. It would analyze all EU legal acts and identify cases of excessive regulation. “Artificial intelligence should take stock of what needs to go. Mere words about ‘simplification’ do not fill me with much optimism,” the current vice-rector of Charles University reiterated.
Ekonomický deník and Česká justice would like to thank the conference partners: Vodafone Czech Republic, the law firms White & Case, Matzner & Vítek, and OpenSSL.
