Baseline Measurement

The baseline measurement, completed in June 2007, collected data on information obligations for businesses resulting from federal and European regulation. Information obligations in EU regulations were measured, when a national legislative act was necessary for their implementation. Costs were evaluated using the Standard Cost model.

• All regulations in force by 31 December 2006.
• The measurement was carried out by external consultants.
• The Federal Ministries contributed their know-how on legal provisions and administration.

Administrative costs incurred as a result of 5687 information obligations in 561 legal provisions were measured.

Results

In the first half of 2007 all legal provisions in force by 31 December 2006 containing information obligations and administrative burdens for businesses were analysed and measured. The measurement was carried out by external consultants using face-to-face interviews in businesses and expert panels. The method used was the Dutch Standard Cost Model.<

Baseline

561 legal provisions with 5687 information obligations have been analysed and measured.

Federal Ministry
of

Legal provisions	Information obligations
Economics, Family and Youth	243	1656
Finance	77	1551
Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water management	46	740
Health	44	717
Justice	43	476
Transport, Innovation and Technology	74	348
Labour, Social Affairs and Consumerism	11	98
Chancellery	11	67
Education, Arts and Culture	5	17
Interios	5	13
Defence and Sports	1	3
Science and Research	1	1
In total	561	5687

These information obligations cause administrative burdens for Austrian businesses of 4.3 billion EUR or 1.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.

Reduction targets by ministries

The Austrian government has set an overall reduction target for all federal ministries of over 1 billion EUR. The Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs is not responsible for laws causing information obligations for businessed and was therefore not included in the graph below.

The graph shows the baseline and the overall reduction for each ministry.

 

 

The overall reduction will be achieved in two phases:

  

• Reductions for national induced burdens have to be achieved until 2010. 
•  Reductions for EU induced burdens have to be achieved until 2012. The EU initiative, which started in March 2007, aims to reduce administrative burdens steaming from EU legislation by 25 per cent until 2012, a concerted action is sensible.

 

National versus EU-induced burdens for businesses

 

 

In two thirds of administrative burdens incurred through EU legislation, there is scope for national transposition measures.

The most important legal areas

The areas tax law, employment and social insurance law as well as trade and commercial law cause around 2.7 billion EUR. This mirrors approximately the three most affected ministries: Finance, Economics and Labour, Justice.

Area	Number of legal provisions	Burdens (in Mio. EUR)	in %
Tax law	34	1,045	24
Employment and social insurance law	64	1,041	24
Trade and Commercial law	24	609	14

In comparison, statistics „only“ cause 41 million EUR although businesses perceive statistical declarations as very burdensome.