Power struggle over EU anti-red tape group
By Honor Mahony
An expert group charged with advising the European Commission on cutting the unnecessary laws coming out of Brussels has run into difficulty - even before its first official meeting later this month.
The red tape-busting committee, led by the centre-right former Bavaria leader Edmund Stoiber, is meeting opposition within its target institution, the European Commission, for its extensive demands.
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According to a report in German daily Handelsblatt, Mr Stoiber has asked for the group to have more powers as well as many more members than just the secretarial assistance the commission had intended.
Mr Stoiber has been working the phone to commission president Jose Manuel Barroso to ask for his own personal assistant, a team of around 10 commission officials and further member state experts.
The whole issue has a separate element of political frisson because of German internal politics. The man Mr Stoiber is supposed to be helping out with his bureaucracy-cutting suggestions is industry commissioner Guenter Verheugen, a fellow German but a rival socialist.
Mr Stoiber has already tried to circumvent Mr Verheugen – who so far has been the commissioner responsible for cutting red tape - by asking that he report directly and only to Mr Barroso.
But he has met a brick wall within the commission. According to Handelsblatt, Mr Barroso's spokesman said: "it is not foreseen that the internal organisation of the commission is changed." So Mr Stoiber is set to answer to Mr Verheugen.
Another point of contention is the powers of the group, which has a three year mandate and is supposed to "support" the commission in its aim to cut the administrative burden caused to businesses by EU law by 25% by 2012.
Mr Stoiber is apparently keen to throw off the supporting mantel in favour of something more proactive, such as looking at newly proposed legislation rather than just older laws.
The power tussle involved with setting up the group comes amid speculation that the expert committee will have difficulty making a real difference with the commission already having a team of officials working on the issue.
As yet it remains unclear who will be on the 15-strong committee, supposed to have its first meeting on 20 November. Die Welt notes that Mr Stoiber is already looking for support from Munich, Bavaria's capital and has asked business consultant Roland Berger to be part of the group.