SME minister announces 1 billion euros red tape cuts (France)

As reported earlier in this blog, today a major stakeholder event was held in Paris to close the consultation cycle prior to the launch of a new package of red tape cuts. Minister in charge of SMEs Mr Frédéric Lefebvre announced this morning that the programme of "immersion" of officials in private companies, and the series of 22 regional hearings had yielded a rich catalogue of (80)simplification measures that should substantially improve the regulatory environment, and "give back" 1 billion euros to business. More than 700 suggestions had been collected and processed to produce the package that addresses the most irritating and costly procedures. Data consolidated for the conference shows that what companies in France would most appreciate would be a "single contact point" for each dossier they must file, to get a clearer view of their obligations and how to meet them without being sent from one desk to another, a step towards a type of "virtual one-stop-shop."
Co-chairing the event was Mr Jean-Luc Warsmann, president of the legal affairs committee of the national assembly and author of three simplification bills. The news there is also good, with the adoption earlier this month of the fifth simplification law, which has not yet been enacted however due to a referral to the Constitutional Court. Comments on the blogosphere or the press question the complexity of the so-called simplification measures, or their apparent disconnection with the content of the omnibus (for example the clause on the national school of administration that is being referred to the constitutional court.)