(AGENPARL) - Roma, 29 Giugno 2026 - Dear journalist,
Today, BusinessEurope published the findings of a study on Smart approaches to address regulatory burdens of EU social regulations by Ecorys. The objective of the study, which was carried out at the request of BusinessEurope, was to provide an evidence-based assessment of the regulatory burdens associated with EU social legislation from an employer's perspective.
The report confirms that regulatory burden is most strongly associated with the instruments that entail extensive reporting requirements, recurrent documentation obligations, or complex compliance procedures. The Pay Transparency Directive (71% of respondents) and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (70%), safety and health risk assessment, documentation and preventive obligations (68%), cross border social security documentation requirements for posting of workers (A1 forms, 63%) and working time reporting requirements (55%) were most frequently rated by the survey respondents as imposing very high or high costs.
BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer said: "The upcoming Quality Jobs Act must contribute to reducing the cumulative regulatory burdens stemming from EU social legislation. At the same time, the Fair Labour Mobility Package must reduce the administrative cost for employers sending workers across borders."
For BusinessEurope, the answer lies in simplifying EU social regulatory requirements – notably, by ensuring proportionality and giving more room for collective agreements negotiated by social partners – and putting in place interoperable digital systems which make it possible to report the same data only once.
Read the full report, the lessons that BusinessEurope has drawn from the study and our concrete proposals to reduce the cost of compliance here.
ENDS

Contact:
Ellen O'Connor
Director of Communications