Cities' and regions' contribution to the simplification agenda
Opinion factsheet
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- Constitutional and Institutional Affairs
- Regulatory policy
Opinion number:
CDR-3427-2025
Status:
Adopted
Objective
Simplify and accelerate EU legislation while reducing administrative burdens and avoiding overly detailed rules.
Streamline EU legislation to reduce complexity and administrative burdens for citizens, businesses, and local and regional authorities (LRAs).
Enhance involvement of local and regional authorities (LRAs) in legislative processes, including implementation dialogues and reality checks to ensure legislation reflects on-the-ground realities.
Improve regulatory coherence and prioritisation, ensuring consistency between new and existing laws.
Reduce bureaucratic barriers, especially in cohesion fund management, to boost competitiveness and unlock economic potential.
Provide concrete operational proposals for simplification of EU legislation based on the experience of LRAs in EU law and policy implementation on the ground.
Streamline EU legislation to reduce complexity and administrative burdens for citizens, businesses, and local and regional authorities (LRAs).
Enhance involvement of local and regional authorities (LRAs) in legislative processes, including implementation dialogues and reality checks to ensure legislation reflects on-the-ground realities.
Improve regulatory coherence and prioritisation, ensuring consistency between new and existing laws.
Reduce bureaucratic barriers, especially in cohesion fund management, to boost competitiveness and unlock economic potential.
Provide concrete operational proposals for simplification of EU legislation based on the experience of LRAs in EU law and policy implementation on the ground.
Impact
The European Commission:
recognises the value of the Fit for Future Platform and looks to keep building on it, and notes particularly the contribution provided by the CoR and by the RegHub network, addressing the concerns expressed in point 32 of the opinion;
supports call to national, regional and local authorities to contribute to the simplification efforts when implementing EU legislation, as this is a joint effort and it is important to avoid the gold-plating, that can result in fragmentation of the single market and create additional burdens for citizens and businesses, as expressed in point 25 of the opinion;
aims to ensure that relevant support is provided to strengthen administrative capacity for public administrations, addressing concerns outlined in point 5 of the opinion;
has introduced two new consultation tools, mentioned in point 22 of the copinion: reality checks and implementation dialogues, where local and regional authorities could be involved when relevant;
the consolidation and simplification of cities’ access to EU support tools is a key priority, to be achieved through the ‘EU Cities web portal’;
proposes to create a common ‘EU Cities platform’ in the next programming period, bringing together funding instruments, technical assistance, knowledge resources and digital tools (point 27 of the opinion);
will put in place regular dialogues between cities and the Commission, including an annual high level political dialogue;
ensures that the upcoming Communication on better regulation will further reinforce the system, including as regards impact assessments.
recognises the value of the Fit for Future Platform and looks to keep building on it, and notes particularly the contribution provided by the CoR and by the RegHub network, addressing the concerns expressed in point 32 of the opinion;
supports call to national, regional and local authorities to contribute to the simplification efforts when implementing EU legislation, as this is a joint effort and it is important to avoid the gold-plating, that can result in fragmentation of the single market and create additional burdens for citizens and businesses, as expressed in point 25 of the opinion;
aims to ensure that relevant support is provided to strengthen administrative capacity for public administrations, addressing concerns outlined in point 5 of the opinion;
has introduced two new consultation tools, mentioned in point 22 of the copinion: reality checks and implementation dialogues, where local and regional authorities could be involved when relevant;
the consolidation and simplification of cities’ access to EU support tools is a key priority, to be achieved through the ‘EU Cities web portal’;
proposes to create a common ‘EU Cities platform’ in the next programming period, bringing together funding instruments, technical assistance, knowledge resources and digital tools (point 27 of the opinion);
will put in place regular dialogues between cities and the Commission, including an annual high level political dialogue;
ensures that the upcoming Communication on better regulation will further reinforce the system, including as regards impact assessments.
Essential points
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS (CoR):
- welcomes the European Council conclusions of 23 October 2025, which call for continued efforts to put forward proposals to simplify the EU regulatory framework;
- undertakes to do more to support the simplification agenda by taking account of the experiences of its members and networks, such as RegHub and the Subsidiarity Expert Group, and by offering practical for future legislative proposals;
- emphasises that simplification measures should be applied to all suitable areas, in particular: 1) legislative procedures, which should take greater account of the perspective of local and regional authorities; 2) fund and programme management rules;
- considers that simplification should be supported by comprehensive digitalisation and the secure use of artificial intelligence (AI); points out that the use of modern digital tools in relation to simplification rules should be harmonised as much as possible across the EU;
- warns that simplification should not simply mean deregulation;
- stresses in the strongest possible terms that simplification cannot mean centralisation. The European Commission’s proposals to consolidate funds under the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework will lead to excessive centralisation of key policy areas, including cohesion policy and the common agricultural policy, making them less ambitious and simultaneously undermining the EU’s strategic objectives, including competitiveness;
- recommends that a single rulebook be adopted to govern all EU funds and programmes; simplified cost options, including results-based cost accounting, should be promoted; LRAs must have a guaranteed role to play in managing EU funds; calls for presumption of compliance or exemption from State aid rules for projects under a certain threshold or a legal exemption for all non-economic activities and small grants;- calls for simplifications to be genuinely impactful and effective in the new EU budget (2028-2034). This means that appropriate institutional and procedural reforms need to be prepared, adopted and implemented as early as 2026 so that they will be fully functional by the new financial cycle.