EESC CORNER: The EU Should Take Inspiration from the Czech Model in Tackling Bureaucracy

In the era of cloud computing and AI, it is paradoxical that Europe’s legislative machinery still functions with a mindset rooted in Napoleonic times. Today, laws are drafted on computers, stored in official journals, and published online. Yet despite these modern tools, the approach to regulation remains stubbornly analogue. Over decades, laws have accumulated, creating unintended bureaucratic burdens and rendering the system opaque. Neither citizens nor lawmakers can easily track how rules interact, making compliance difficult and trust in institutions fragile.

Simplification is now firmly on the EU’s agenda — and rightly so. At its core, simplification is not about deregulation, but about making rules more effective, more consistent, and easier to apply. Too often, burdens arise not from the substance of regulations, but from how they are designed and implemented. Take reporting obligations: much of the data requested from businesses already exists in public registers. Yet under different legal acts, the same information is often requested multiple times — each time with different formats and criteria.

In 2022 alone, recurring administrative costs across the EU were estimated at €150 billion. This is a clear signal: our legal framework remains too complex, too fragmented, and too difficult to navigate.

The solution lies in smarter tools and better design. That is why the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted an opinion on the use of digital tools and artificial intelligence in EU law-making.

It proposes that every new legal act include a clear summary of obligations — written by regulators for clarity and structured in a way that supports digital processing. With this approach, AI can identify overlaps, inconsistencies, and gaps by linking related provisions and tracking their interactions. But to fully realize this potential, the EU needs a unified, interoperable digital platform for EU legislation — a space where institutions can collaboratively draft, amend, and monitor laws.

This opinion, requested by the Danish Presidency, is a call to action. As a new interinstitutional agreement is being prepared, the EESC urges Member States to seize this opportunity to modernize EU law-making — building trust, increasing compliance, and reinforcing democratic legitimacy. Under the leadership of the Danish Presidency, this transformation can — and must — be delivered.

By Alena Mastantuono, EESC rapporteur on RegTech opinion