The Ministry of Territorial Policy and Civil Service has held three days with the cooperation of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, two with CEOE and CEPYME and two with the Spanish Federation of Employers and Self-Employed Workers (ATA).
We have had the participation of entrepreneurs and associations from different parts of Spain, which has allowed to gather the different sensitivities and particularities in terms of sectors, subjects or size of companies, paying special attention to SMEs and the self-employed.
The meetings have enabled entrepreneurs from different points and characteristics to learn about the actions being carried out since the AGE and public bodies in terms of reducing administrative burdens and improving regulation.
At the same time, employers have expressed their own experience and difficulties in the administrative process directly and have put forward proposals to improve competitiveness.
The topics covered relate to different areas such as the energy sector, climate change, circular economy or sustainability and, in general, business start-ups and the day-to-day business.
The meetings held with different organizations allow the different ministerial departments to know the demands for improvement of different groups and to meet these demands, as far as possible, also contributing to the participation of the society of public policies.
The proposals that originate these conventions are one of the starting points of the Burden Reduction and Simplification Plans developed by the ministries.
The Ministry of Territorial Policy and Civil Service transfers them to the relevant departments, where they are valued and, where appropriate, implemented to streamline the existing bureaucracy in carrying out projects.
During this year, the different ministerial departments have analyzed a total of 148 proposals presented by the aforementioned organizations at the end of 2019, highlighting with greater volume those corresponding to Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Finance, and Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
Among the measures positively assessed by the departments are some related to improvements in the State Procurement Platform, electronic processing of procedures in the transport sector, interoperability in the application procedures for aid under the Industry 4.0 Active Programme or in the replacement of authorisation by responsible declaration in the various public administrations.
Over 50 per cent of the measures favourably received by ministries benefit (each of them) groups of up to 50,000 enterprises/self-employed/citizens, and about 12 per cent of the population over 500,000.
These actions are part of the policy of reducing administrative burdens and simplifying administrative procedures that is essential at the present time, given the need for AGE to adapt its functioning to reality, while at the same time helping to boost economic development and meet the needs of society.
Reducing administrative burdens is also a public policy on the agenda of national and international governments, administrations and public bodies (especially in the EU and OECD), and is an expression of a repeated demand from citizens, businesses and socio-economic actors, who are the final recipients of the activities of public administrations.
Last June, the Minister for Territorial Policy and the Civil Service, Carolina Darias, signed a series of agreements with different business and social associations to identify administrative burdens and reduce them.
Among the activities envisaged by the conventions is the organisation of meetings, such as those which have now been held, with employers and associations in order to move towards administrative simplification.