Administration, rules and the Single Market – why does it matter?
One of the aims of the Single Market regulatory framework is to support investment and entrepreneurship by reducing unnecessary regulatory burden and promoting good administrative practices. These factors are important in order to create a favourable business environment for all economic actors and particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.
The indicators in this section measure national administrations’ responsiveness to businesses’ needs and the extent to which stakeholders perceive regulation as burdensome.
Burden of government regulation
This indicator is measured by tracking replies to the survey question: ‘In your country, how easy is it for companies to comply with government regulation and administrative requirements (e.g. permits, reporting, legislation)? (1 = Overly complex; 7 = Extremely easy)’. Higher values indicate a better performance (i.e. less burdensome regulation).
Source: World Economic Forum
Digital public services for businesses
This indicator assesses to what extent informational and transactional public services needed to start a business and conduct regular business operations are available online for domestic and foreign users. Services provided through a portal receive a higher score, while services providing information only (but which have to be completed offline) receive a lower score. 100% of key public services should be available online for European citizens and businesses by 2030 (target set in the 2030 Digital Compass). Each country's score can range from 0 (low performance) to 100 (top performance).
Payment delays by public authorities
This indicator measures delays by public authorities in making payments to businesses. It shows the number of days by which public authorities missed contractual payment deadlines.
Lower values for this indicator point to a better performance, because the goal is to reduce payment delays. Negative figures are not only possible but desirable, because they indicate that the public authorities pay on average earlier than stipulated in the contract.
Source: Intrum, European Payment Report 2024.
Time to resolve insolvency
This indicator measures the time creditors need to recover what they are owed. The time runs from the company’s default until the payment of some or all of the money owed to the bank. Potential delaying tactics (e.g. the filing of dilatory appeals or requests for extension of the due payment period) are taken into consideration. This indicator is in calendar years. The shorter the time taken to resolve the insolvency, the better for the business environment and for giving honest entrepreneurs a second chance.
Source: World Bank, Doing Business Report 2020. The data are collected from questionnaire responses by local insolvency practitioners and verified through the study of laws, regulations and public information on bankruptcy systems.
Impact of regulation on long-term investment decisions
This indicator measures the share of respondents to the EIB Investment Survey that consider a country’s business regulation as a major or minor obstacle to long-term investment decisions.
Source: EIB Investment Survey (EIBIS), 2024