# A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook Canonical URL: https://digital-acquis.eu/initiative/a-simpler-clearer-and-better-enforced-eu-rulebook Entry type: initiative Source edition current through: 17 July 2026 (2026-07-17). This is not a page modification date. Status: delivered. A delivered initiative is not necessarily legislation in force. Instrument: Communication Date as recorded: 28 Apr 2026 Date kind: date Status note: full date links only to published artifact types ## Summary The Commission's communication seeks to make EU law easier to design, implement and enforce, with a strategic focus on the single market. It introduces simplicity by design, more focused impact assessments, clearer access to legislation, realistic implementation deadlines and digital drafting and acquis-management tools. It also calls for enforcement to be considered in legal design and accompanies these measures with an Action Plan for Regulatory Deep Cleaning. ## Sources - [Official source]() - [Annex 1]() - [Annex 2]() ## Action items (36; complete published list) ### 1. Action item 700001 Greater focus on the subsidiarity and proportionality principles as part of regulatory discipline, including on empowerments for delegated and implementing acts. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 1. Digital dimension: no. ### 2. Action item 700002 Prioritising exhaustive regulations and complete harmonisation when regulating single market-related matters, where legally feasible and appropriate. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 2. Digital dimension: no. ### 3. Action item 700003 Regular and well-timed monitoring and evaluation clauses, and use of sunset clauses where appropriate, to keep legislation responsive to new developments. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 3. Digital dimension: no. ### 4. Action item 700004 Greater use of recast and codification techniques and ensuring consistency between sectoral and general legislation and between existing and new legal acts. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 4. Digital dimension: no. ### 5. Action item 700005 Identifying best-practice standard terms and provisions, with standard wording agreed between institutions where possible, and more focused recitals. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 5. Digital dimension: no. ### 6. Action item 700006 Setting realistic transposition and implementation timelines and consider systematically measures such as grandfathering clauses or gradual phase-in to facilitate implementation. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 6. Digital dimension: no. ### 7. Action item 700007 Further developing and using digital tools, like the EdiT electronic drafting tool, a new acquis management tool, while further enhancing the access point to EU law, EUR-Lex, and further developing the European Legal Data Space. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 7. Digital dimension: no. ### 8. Action item 700008 Setting up a network of legal quality correspondents across the Commission and introduce mandatory training for legal drafters based on updated guidance. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 8. Digital dimension: no. ### 9. Action item 700009 More robust monitoring and enforcement mechanisms in EU legal acts to ensure enforcement by design, including the prevention of incompatibilities with EU law at an early stage through prior notification mechanisms. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 9. Digital dimension: no. ### 10. Action item 700010 A wider range of initiatives with significant impacts, accompanied by an impact assessment and scrutinised by the Regulatory Scrutiny Board. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 10. Digital dimension: no. ### 11. Action item 700011 More focused impact assessments, based on an initial matrix of key impacts and a more proportionate approach. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 11. Digital dimension: no. ### 12. Action item 700012 Minimum requirements for urgent initiatives under accelerated pathways. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 12. Digital dimension: no. ### 13. Action item 700013 A simplified call for evidence to focus on key information for stakeholders. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 13. Digital dimension: no. ### 14. Action item 700014 Optimised and more flexible consultation timelines, taking account of holiday periods. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 14. Digital dimension: no. ### 15. Action item 700015 More integrated and flexible deployment of different consultation tools to avoid consultation fatigue and access a wide variety of views and inputs. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 15. Digital dimension: no. ### 16. Action item 700016 Direct automated notification to respondents of consultation summaries. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 16. Digital dimension: no. ### 17. Action item 700017 Updating the better regulation guidelines and the impact assessment and evaluation templates to reflect these improvements. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 17. Digital dimension: no. ### 18. Action item 700018 Continued work with the co-legislators to develop and implement a common methodology so that each institution assesses its substantial amendments. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 18. Digital dimension: no. ### 19. Action item 700019 Carrying out a regulatory deep cleaning as set out in the attached action plan. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 19. Digital dimension: no. ### 20. Action item 700020 Seeking further input from stakeholders to identify implementation challenges and simplification potential, including through consultations, implementation dialogues and reality checks. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 20. Digital dimension: no. ### 21. Action item 700021 Setting up a new high-level expert group – the Simplification Platform – to support simplification and burden reduction efforts. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 21. Digital dimension: no. ### 22. Action item 700022 Supporting Member States in their commitment to avoid gold-plating through a toolkit with best practices and transposition guidance. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 22. Digital dimension: no. ### 23. Action item 700023 Better and earlier detection of instances of gold-plating, through Commission tools and together with Member States. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 23. Digital dimension: no. ### 24. Action item 700024 Identifying key barriers and following up on gold-plating issues per Member State through the European Semester and the Single Market Enforcement Taskforce. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 24. Digital dimension: no. ### 25. Action item 700025 Resolving identified issues in the single market focus areas for enforcement swiftly and referring the persisting issues to the Court of Justice, where appropriate. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 25. Digital dimension: no. ### 26. Action item 700026 Faster infringement procedures over incomplete transposition of directives, through quicker reasoned opinions and systematic follow-up where Member States have not provided explanatory documents. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 26. Digital dimension: no. ### 27. Action item 700027 Fewer extensions of deadlines for Member States to reply to the Commission in infringement procedures. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 27. Digital dimension: no. ### 28. Action item 700028 Introducing the use of dedicated artificial intelligence tools to assist in speeding up transposition assessments, thus reducing administrative burdens without compromising accuracy and ensuring strict safeguards. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 28. Digital dimension: no. ### 29. Action item 700029 Reducing the number of long-lasting infringement cases by the end of this Commission’s mandate, with a particular focus on cases open for over five years that have not been referred to the Court of Justice. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 29. Digital dimension: no. ### 30. Action item 700030 More dissuasive financial penalties against Member States proposed to the Court of Justice. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 30. Digital dimension: no. ### 31. Action item 700031 Besides the existing scrutiny of the transposition of directives, better monitoring of EU regulations through a new IT tool to centralise Member State notifications where relevant, and to systematise implementation guidance and strengthen oversight by the Commission. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 31. Digital dimension: no. ### 32. Action item 700032 Better prevention of breaches of single market rules, making use of notification requirements under the Single Market Transparency Directive and the Services Directive. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 32. Digital dimension: no. ### 33. Action item 700033 Regulatory Deep Cleaning Action Plan – Annex 1 Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 33. Digital dimension: no. ### 34. Action item 700035 The regulatory deep cleaning of horizontal and sectoral digital legislation will seek to deliver regulatory simplification in digital areas crucial for Europe’s competitiveness. A Digital Fitness Check is being conducted to assess the cumulative effects of the digital rulebook on the EU's competitiveness, identifying synergies, and good practices, mapping applicable rules, reducing redundancies and duplications, and closing gaps. A key part of the Fitness Check is to examine the governance of the digital rules, and seek opportunities to strengthen their implementation and enforcement, not least to bring more coherence, consistency and predictability to businesses. It will look at best practices in consultation processes, cooperation among authorities, consistent enforcement and prevention of contradictory interpretations, and the reduction of administrative burdens. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 35. Digital dimension: no. ### 35. Action item 700037 The revision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive will modernise and simplify rules for ensuring viewer protection and media pluralism. The regulatory deep cleaning of horizontal and sectoral digital legislation will look at the interplay of different rules, assessing how they interact and how their overlay impacts businesses from different sectors. It will focus on ensuring an efficient framework that streamlines requirements and eliminates overlaps, while preserving sector specificities. It will build upon existing simplification efforts including under the Digital Omnibus, and interface with evaluations of specific acts run in parallel. A wide-range of sectors are covered by general cybersecurity rules, as well as sector-specific regulations – such as the Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems, the Digital Operational Resilience Act, and the Regulation on Electronic Identification and Trust Services. When adopted by the co-legislators, the solution for incident reporting proposed in the Digital Omnibus will deliver an urgently-needed key operational step towards increased coherence. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 37. Digital dimension: no. ### 36. Action item 700039 The harmonisation of reporting requirements through digital tools, including the extension of the one-stop-shop and the revision of the Internal Market Information system, will facilitate the exchange of information, registration and payment. The eInvoicing harmonisation will address fragmentation and reduce burdens by enabling the re-use of data. Provenance: source document doc-099, paragraph 39. Digital dimension: no. ## Referenced entries - [Digital Fitness Check]() — status: forthcoming. The Commission will stress-test the EU’s digital rulebook to cut costs, remove overlaps and improve coherence, with results due in Q4 2025. It will assess cumulative burdens on businesses across data legislation, cookies and tracking, cybersecurity incident reporting, AI Act implementation, and the European Digital Identity framework, feeding simplification proposals. The exercise will complement the Digital Omnibus and examine cross-border fragmentation and costs, without lowering protections. Each Commissioner will review laws in remit under the steer of the Commissioner for Implementation and Simplification, drawing on “reality checks” with practitioners to ground changes in practice. Source document doc-099, action item 700035: > The regulatory deep cleaning of horizontal and sectoral digital legislation will seek to deliver regulatory simplification in digital areas crucial for Europe’s competitiveness. A Digital Fitness Check is being conducted to assess the cumulative effects of the digital rulebook on the EU's competitiveness, identifying synergies, and good practices, mapping applicable rules, reducing redundancies and duplications, and closing gaps. A key part of the Fitness Check is to examine the governance of the digital rules, and seek opportunities to strengthen their implementation and enforcement, not least to bring more coherence, consistency and predictability to businesses. It will look at best practices in consultation processes, cooperation among authorities, consistent enforcement and prevention of contradictory interpretations, and the reduction of administrative burdens. - [Greater Focus on the Subsidiarity and Proportionality Principles]() — status: ongoing. This measure is part of the Commission communication A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook, adopted on 28 April 2026, under the heading of regulatory discipline. The Commission says that regulatory discipline is a means to ensure that the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality are applied consistently in EU law, so that the Union can focus its efforts and resources on areas where EU-level action is necessary, brings the most added value and is proportionate. It says the same discipline must apply when laying down implementing rules, to prevent EU legislation from becoming too long, complex and costly. In upcoming legislative proposals the Commission will seek to propose only well-designed empowerments for delegated and implementing acts which are strictly necessary to implement and enforce EU rules or international obligations. It calls on the European Parliament and the Council to apply the same discipline throughout the legislative process. Source document doc-099, action item 700001: > Greater focus on the subsidiarity and proportionality principles as part of regulatory discipline, including on empowerments for delegated and implementing acts. - [Reality Checks]() — status: ongoing. Reality Checks are hands-on diagnostics that bring Commission services to practitioners to test whether EU rules work in real life. Through targeted technical exchanges, teams identify hurdles in authorisations, permitting, control and compliance, capture good practices, and map where national transposition or “gold-plating” adds cost or fragmentation. Findings verify the assumptions behind legislation, quantify burdens and expected savings, and assess if planned simplifications are realistic. Results feed directly into evaluations and fitness checks, the gradual stress-test of the acquis, and the design of future simplification packages, ensuring evidence-based fixes and quicker, cheaper compliance without lowering standards. Source document doc-099, action item 700020: > Seeking further input from stakeholders to identify implementation challenges and simplification potential, including through consultations, implementation dialogues and reality checks. - [Regulatory Deep Cleaning Action Plan]() — status: not recorded. The Regulatory Deep Cleaning Action Plan aims to address inconsistencies, outdated, overlapping and redundant provisions, as well as overly complex rules that may hinder competitiveness and innovation. The Commission identifies priority areas including goods and services, financial services, customs, taxation, health and food safety, agriculture, transport, energy, climate, environment, digital matters, housing and permitting. It accompanies wider measures on simpler lawmaking and stronger implementation and enforcement. Source document doc-099, action item 700033: > Regulatory Deep Cleaning Action Plan – Annex 1 ## Current developments Latest updates from Digital Policy Alert and Global Trade Alert. No reviewed developments available; this does not establish that no developments exist. ## Associated policy priorities - [Implementation, Simplification & Better Regulation]() ## Broader policy context (shared priority; not a direct citation) - [Administrative Burden Reduction Targets of 25/35%]() — status: ongoing. The Commission will deliver quantified, mandate-wide cuts to red tape: at least 25% for all firms and 35% for SMEs, applied to all administrative costs, not only reporting. Using Eurostat’s €150 billion estimate of recurring administrative costs (2022), this implies €37.5 billion in annual savings by end-mandate. Progress will be tracked in yearly enforcement and implementation reports, with dedicated SME measures and avoidance of national “gold-plating”. The drive complements “one-in, one-out” and will be executed via prioritised simplification packages and Omnibus proposals, while co-legislators preserve savings in negotiations and Member States streamline transposition and application. - [Annual Enforcement and Implementation Progress Reports]() — status: ongoing. Annual Enforcement and Implementation Progress Reports provide the Council and European Parliament with updates on simplification, implementation and enforcement within each Commissioner's area of responsibility. The 2025 Annual Progress Reports cover 1st January to 31 July 2025. They address simplification and stress testing, implementation support, enforcement, progress made and concrete next steps across the Commission's portfolios. - [Better Regulation Guidelines Update]() — status: forthcoming. Just like the EU’s rules, its better regulation framework must be simplified to enable a simpler and faster Europe. The Commission will therefore apply a more rigorous and structured application of the proportionality principle in better regulation and put forward a communication to that effect in the first half of 2026. - [EU Treaty Change]() — status: ongoing. To equip a larger, more contested Union, the Commission will pursue institutional reforms, up to targeted Treaty changes where they clearly improve capacity to act and democratic accountability. It couples faster, simpler law-making with rigorous implementation: stress-testing the acquis, reducing administrative burdens, and renewing an interinstitutional pact on better lawmaking. Each Commissioner will hold biannual implementation dialogues and publish annual progress reports, while enforcement against Single Market fragmentation is stepped up. The objective is a Union that legislates less and delivers more so Europe can decide and act at the speed today’s challenges demand. - [European Commissioner for Implementation and Simplification]() — status: not recorded. The Commissioner will lead a whole-of-Commission drive to make EU rules simpler, faster and better enforced. The agenda prioritises early implementation strategies with Member States, hands-on “reality checks” with practitioners, and twice-yearly implementation dialogues in every portfolio feeding annual progress reports and resolute enforcement against fragmentation and gold-plating. New quantified targets will cut recurring administrative costs by at least 25% (35% for SMEs), underpinned by omnibus simplification packages, streamlined permitting, and digital-by-default delivery. A rolling stress-test of the entire acquis will consolidate and clarify rules; reinforced SME/competitiveness checks, proportionate use of delegated/implementing acts, and digital tools (such as a European Business Wallet and once-only interoperability) will lower costs and speed compliance. - [Implementation Strategies and Dialogues for all Laws]() — status: ongoing. For every major EU law, the Commission will prepare a structured implementation strategy that maps legal, administrative and practical challenges, sets timelines, and defines targeted support. These strategies will use explanatory templates and national transposition roadmaps, track progress, and flag “gold plating” that fragments the Single Market. Delivery will be backed by expert-group peer support and EU agencies, plus investments in administrative capacity, digital tools and data (e.g. TSI, ComPAct, IMI, Single Digital Gateway). The Commission will hold twice-yearly implementation dialogues with stakeholders and publish annual progress reports to surface hurdles and simplification opportunities. Hands-on “reality checks” with practitioners will verify costs and fix bottlenecks early; where dialogue fails, swift infringement action will follow. - [Innovation Stress Test for Member States]() — status: forthcoming. The proposed innovation stress test would examine legislation while it is being prepared or revised, with the aim of making the regulatory framework more innovation-friendly. It forms part of the planned European Innovation Act, which seeks cross-sectoral conditions for bringing innovative ideas to market. The Act is intended to address commercialisation, collaboration, market access, finance, talent, infrastructure, procurement, regulatory sandboxes and coordination of national and EU policies. - [Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Lawmaking Update]() — status: forthcoming. The Commission will seek a renewed agreement with Parliament and Council to embed simplification and implementation across the full legislative cycle. It will align subsidiarity/proportionality checks, apply a shared methodology to estimate the costs of significant amendments, and integrate SME/competitiveness tests up front. Co-legislators will commit to fast-tracking simplification packages, limiting gold-plating and streamlining empowerments for delegated/implementing acts. Annual progress reporting will create accountability on enforcement and burden-reduction targets, while “digital-by-default/once-only” delivery and interoperability requirements are designed in from the start. Together, the institutions will stress-test the acquis to cut administrative costs without lowering standards. - [Methodology for the Co-Legislators’ Amendment Assessment]() — status: forthcoming. In its communication A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook, adopted on 28 April 2026, the Commission proposes a common methodology so that the European Parliament and the Council each assess the substantial amendments they make to Commission proposals. The Commission says that in practice the institutions proposing such amendments do not assess their impact, despite their commitment to do so, and that this leaves the analysis of a law's expected impacts incomplete. It proposes three strands of joint work. First, the institutions should reach a shared understanding of what constitutes a substantial amendment, for example extending a proposal's scope to micro-companies or SMEs or adding compliance costs or reporting requirements. Second, the institution tabling such an amendment would assess its impacts and quantify costs or savings using a simple cost calculation method, with the standard cost model for administrative costs. Third, the impacts would be presented in a concise template covering expected costs and benefits, affected stakeholders, and effects on competitiveness and innovation. - [More strategic Enforcement against Non-Implementation and unlawful Gold-Plating]() — status: ongoing. This measure forms part of the Commission communication A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook, adopted on 28 April 2026. The Commission defines gold-plating as a Member State introducing, when transposing or implementing EU law, a wider scope, stricter rules or obligations that go beyond the EU legal act. It says it will work with Member States on a toolkit of best practices and criteria to identify and avoid gold-plating, support them during transposition of directives, use implementation dialogues, reality checks and the European Semester to detect gold-plating, and take the risk into account when drafting proposals. On non-implementation, the Commission notes that in 2025 almost 70% of new infringement procedures stemmed from late transposition. Where a Member State notifies no transposition measure, it will as a rule issue a reasoned opinion within six months of the letter of formal notice, and it will be systematically more stringent in calculating the penalties it proposes to the Court. - [Reinforced SME and Competitiveness Checks]() — status: forthcoming. Will be mandatory for proposals with business impacts, combining a reinforced SME test with a sector-focused competitiveness lens. The check assesses four dimensions (i.e. cost/price effects, international competitiveness, innovation capacity, and specific SME impacts) and examines cumulative burdens across value chains. Findings will shape mitigation (e.g. lighter regimes, phased timing, digital-by-default delivery) and be transparently presented in impact assessments, with stronger analysis of indirect effects on SMEs. Fitness checks will also report on efficiency for SMEs. Results feed progress reports and a stress-test of the acquis, ensuring no new Single Market barriers and aligning rules with Europe’s overall growth agenda. - [Review of National and European Agencies]() — status: forthcoming. The Commission will audit mandates, governance and resources of Single Market authorities to eliminate overlap, gaps and conflicting procedures. The review will benchmark performance, map workflows, and propose consolidation, clarified competences, interoperable IT, joint inspections and mutual recognition of decisions. It will align agency tasks with the ‘Terrible Ten’ barrier agenda and forthcoming Omnibus simplifications, reducing compliance friction for SMEs and small mid-caps. Deliverables include a reform blueprint and actions to streamline supervision in priority sectors. Expected outcomes: accountability, faster enforcement, consistent interpretation of EU law, lower costs, and improved consumer protection. - [Simplification Platform (High-Level Expert Group)]() — status: not recorded. Simplification Platform will advise the Commission on reducing unnecessary burdens and modernising EU law across national, regional and local application. It will examine gold-plating that can fragment the single market, encourage coordination on simplification, consider digital solutions to reduce red tape, particularly for SMEs, and assess legislative complexity and density. The Platform comprises individual experts, Member States, the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee, supporting the Better Regulation agenda. - [Stronger Scrutiny of Delegated and Implementing acts]() — status: ongoing. Delegated and implementing acts allow the Commission, and exceptionally the Council for implementing acts, to update EU law or secure uniform implementation. Implementing acts normally involve a committee representing every EU country and public feedback on draft texts. Delegated acts cannot change essential elements of a law; Parliament and Council may revoke the delegation or object, after public feedback and expert consultation. - [Well-timed evaluation clauses and the use of sunset clauses]() — status: ongoing. This measure is part of the Commission communication A Simpler, Clearer and Better Enforced EU Rulebook, adopted on 28 April 2026, in the section on future-proof and adaptive regulation. The Commission says EU and national rules must leave room to adapt to rapid technological and geopolitical change, and that it will ensure rules are re-examined and updated where necessary. It says it will use sunset clauses where appropriate so that laws lapse on a specified future date. Used together with well-timed monitoring and evaluation clauses, the Commission says, sunset clauses can help prevent the unnecessary proliferation of rules and reporting requirements and ensure that laws that are no longer relevant do not linger on the statute books. It adds that the language used for sunset, monitoring and evaluation clauses will be standardised and harmonised. The communication gives no implementation date for this measure. --- [Reading guide and interpretation notes]() · [Methodology]()