An efficient regulatory framework and an ambitious reduction in unnecessary administrative burdens in a country are important to strengthen the competitiveness and innovative capacity of the economy, and to increase the positive valuation of citizens and businesses towards administrations. The adoption of certain rules for the limitation of administrative burdens is intended to establish a discipline for regulators to guide the choice of more efficient and effective options. The approaches to load limitation that are being implemented in the different states of our environment (EU and OECD mainly) are based on the “one in – x out” rule, which consists in offsetting the burdens arising from new regulations by reducing existing ones.
The United Kingdom was the first OECD country to formalise this compensation approach as an official government policy in 2011 with the introduction of one in – one out. Subsequently, other countries such as Canada, Spain, Germany, France, Australia and Korea have continued to implement these measures.
Different countries use various compensatory approaches, such as elimination of existing rules, reduction of charges, entry/disposal ratio, restriction or non-compensation of matters/circumstances, etc.
In the specific case of Spain, the principle of compensation of charges is applied by the one in one out rule, elevated to the legal level by means of Article 37 of the EEC Treaty. Law 14/2013 of 27 September 2013Support for Entrepreneurs and their Internationalization. This article provides that:
“Public administrations which, in the exercise of their respective competences, create new administrative burdens for companies, will at least eliminate an existing burden of equivalent cost”.
The rule one in- one out stipulates that each increase in loads must be accompanied by the removal of an existing one. The aim is to ensure that there is no net increase.
Offsetting administrative burdens generated as a result of the rules published by the Ministries can be balanced by the reduction they entail, both other published rules that reduce administrative burdens, as well as savings measures for citizens and businesses included in the Burden Simplification and Reduction Plan drawn up annually by each Ministry.