Published on 2nd December 2025
One year into the Commission’s simplification agenda, Ceemet, EBF, HOTREC, and WEC-Europe reiterate their call for stronger efforts from European policymakers to streamline the social acquis and prioritise effective enforcement. This discussion is both timely and essential, aligning closely with the European Commission’s own objective: to simplify EU rules so they function more effectively for people, businesses, and public administrations alike.
Over the past year, the second Von der Leyen Commission has placed simplification high on its list of priorities, and rightly so. Targeted digital efforts, such as eDeclaration, if implemented, show that well-designed tools can ease administrative burdens and create tangible benefits for companies. Yet, this remains an isolated example. The broader reality is unchanged. The social acquis has grown to more than seventy pieces of legislation, developed at different times and under different political circumstances. The result is a framework that is ever more complex, fragmented and difficult to navigate: this framework does not fit today’s challenges.
Simplification is not the same as deregulation, and the distinction between the two is significant. The moment has come for a structured approach that transforms simplification from an occasional exercise into a constant discipline. Europe needs a routine system of reviewing existing rules, identifying redundant or overlapping provisions, focusing on implementation, and ensuring that new initiatives are designed with simplicity, coherence and usability in mind. This is not only a matter of reducing administrative burden. It is a matter of maintaining Europe’s competitiveness, supporting cross-border activity and the Single Market, and enabling companies to focus on innovation and quality job creation rather than procedural obstacles.
The signatories identify concrete areas where simplification is both feasible and overdue. These include, for example, streamlined procedures for social security coordination, alignment of posting and notification requirements, and improved consistency across reporting and information obligations.
We want to emphasise that European employers have been contributing for decades to the social model in the EU. However, we underline that even the most carefully written legislation will fall short if its application across Member States remains uneven, inconsistent or unclear. Too often, the push for new legislation comes not because there is a legislative gap, but because the existing ones are not fully interpreted and enforced.
Simplification, however, also requires that the Commission always carefully evaluates whether the existing acquis already covers the issues at stake, and refrains from proposing additional rules where that is verifiably the case. It is therefore of paramount importance to put more efforts and resources on the enforcement of the existing legislation at national level before considering introducing new rules.
Ceemet, EBF, HOTREC, and WEC-Europe stand ready to contribute constructively and ambitiously to this effort to simplify social legislation. The Commission has set the direction. The employers are prepared to help deliver results.
