This week, the Symposium for Regulatory Simplification hosted at the OECD brought back to the forefront a debate that Europe can no longer afford to postpone: the need for a profound shift in the regulatory culture of its institutions. This is not simply about updating rules or trimming administrative procedures. It is about understanding regulation as a form of industrial policy. And today, that is essential for Europe’s competitiveness.
In Paris, policymakers, businesses and international organisations discussed the excess of regulatory complexity accumulated in recent years. Valdis Dombrovskis, now leading the European Commission’s portfolio on Economy, Productivity and Legislative Simplification, opened the second day with a clear message: the EU must move from producing regulation to managing regulation; from legislating more to legislating better.
Following the Letta and Draghi reports, Brussels is beginning to recognise that regulatory overload and the proliferation of divergent frameworks are eroding Europe’s ability to attract investment, foster innovation and scale technological projects.
Complexity as a Structural Constraint
Regulatory complexity is no longer a technical issue; it has become a structural barrier to productivity and innovation. Strategic sectors — from connectivity to energy — operate under overlapping and fragmented frameworks that demand resources, time and capital, without delivering equivalent gains in protection or efficiency.
Europe has built an ecosystem in which rules accumulate, are rarely reviewed and are often applied unevenly between countries, between institutions, or between the public and private sectors. This not only creates uncertainty, but also reduces investment in critical infrastructure, slows the digitalisation of SMEs and undermines the competitiveness of our companies compared with more agile regulatory models in the United States or Asia.
Regulation by Design, Simplification by Design
The conclusion is clear: simplification must be built into regulatory design from the outset, not treated as a corrective exercise after the fact.
The OECD also underlines this in its Better Regulation principles. This week’s discussions highlight five key pillars that Europe should embrace:
- Consider the full range of regulatory tools available to governments.
- Improve engagement with businesses and other stakeholders to inform regulatory decisions.
- Commit to effective and efficient enforcement of regulation.
- Routinely evaluate the existing body of regulation.
- Increase cooperation among regulatory institutions at local, regional and international levels.
Good regulation is that which provides clarity, proportionality and coherence. Regulation that enables innovation and scale. Regulation that builds trust. Regulation that treats every new technology not as a problem to contain, but as an opportunity to develop.
The Business Perspective: Competitiveness and Efficiency
In this context, Telefónica’s participation in this week’s symposium reflects the view of those of us who are central actors in Europe’s digital transformation: regulation must stop acting as a drag and start functioning as an enabler.
As Business at OECD stressed in its official position this week, regulation must be approached through a life-cycle lens. Measuring the immediate cost is not enough; what matters is understanding the dynamic impact on innovation, competition, employment and economic efficiency. A rule that delays investment or duplicates requirements can neutralise the very benefits it was designed to generate in terms of protection or fairness.
From our perspective, advocating for simplification is advocating for regulation that is more effective, more strategic and better aligned with the technological challenges ahead — from artificial intelligence to security, the rollout of advanced infrastructure deployment or spectrum management.
Europe’s Major Opportunity
The EU now has both the opportunity and the obligation to reformulate its regulatory culture. If it fails to do so, the risk is evident: remaining stuck in a system where regulation seeks to protect, but ends up limiting investment, innovation and Europe’s ability to compete in a global environment moving much faster.
The good news is that the debate is gaining momentum. What we have seen at the OECD this week suggests a shift in tone. It is urgent to consolidate this shift in order to move from rhetoric to implementation.
In this context, initiatives such as the Digital Omnibus will be essential. Its purpose — to order, simplify and harmonise the current landscape of digital regulation affecting operators, platforms, SMEs and users — is indispensable. But its true potential depends on something deeper, integrating it coherently into Europe’s industrial policy, so that regulation stops acting as a brake and becomes a driver of competitiveness, investment and scale.
Europe needs rules that are simple, clear and predictable. It needs to review what already exists. It needs to measure real impact. And above all, it needs a new regulatory culture that judges its success not by the number of norms adopted, but by the outcomes they generate in terms of growth, investment, scale and social welfare.
Simplifying to Prosper
At a time when connectivity, data and artificial intelligence are already the essential infrastructure of the economy, regulating well is just as important as investing well. Regulatory simplification is not a technical option; it is a strategic choice for a Europe that wants to compete, attract talent and accelerate its transformation.
Simplification does not mean giving up protection; it means reinforcing it. Simplifying means recognising that regulation should add, not subtract, and that Europe cannot afford another cycle of unproductive complexity.
That is the message Paris leaves us with this week – a message we must take forward with determination across all our institutions.
