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, Executive Opinion Survey (2025)
Impact of business 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 (2024)
Simplification of EU rules
This indicator measures the projected annually recurring administrative savings expected from the Omnibus simplification proposals and other initiatives, at the time of their adoption by the Commission. It shows the accumulated expected savings of these proposals put forward up until the end of December 2025. Administrative burdens have been estimated at EUR 150 bn per year. The Commission targets to reduce these by at least 25% (amounting to EUR 37.5 bn) for all businesses and by at least 35% for SMEs.
Source: European Commission (2025)
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. It is measured as the share of administrative steps that can be completed fully online for major life events. There are two life events considered for businesses: Business start-up and regular business operations.
Digital public 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).
Source: European Commission (2024), Digital Decade 2025: eGovernment Benchmark
Digitalisation of cross-border business procedures
This indicator measures the share of Single Market relevant administrative procedures required to be in the Single Digital Gateway, including aspects such as authentication and payment, that are fully online both for national and cross-border users.
Source: European Commission (2025)
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.
Length of standardisation procedures
This indicator measures the average length in years of the drafting stage of standard-setting procedures.
Source: European Commission, SIGNIFERI database (2024)